Marble Magnets

Last week was my beautiful friend Sommer's birthday.  Sommer is summer—warm, fun, cheery…she's like a burst of sunshine and the kind of person that makes you happy just to be around.  Check out her blog, Creative Produce, and you'll see how cute she is!  Just try not to drool on on your keyboard over those cake balls.  She's super talented and one of the most creative people I know, and I knew she would appreciate a handmade gift.

Since Sommer and the beach go together like summer and the beach, the theme was an easy pick, and I made her a set of pretty magnets with a vintage surf vibe.  The idea for these magnets has been around for a while but they're so easy and fun to make, it's definitely worth sharing again.  I found this tutorial several years ago on not martha and I've made a few sets already.  I always love how they turn out!

All you need are some flat glass marbles, magnets, Mod Podge, glue and assorted pictures, papers, or fabrics or whatever you want to use.  I went online to find some vintage-style surf and beach images.  I found tons.  I even found one that says "Seaside Bakery," which is perfect because she loves to bake!  It's too bad I couldn't fit the part that said "Best Buns on the Beach!"  I went to this digital scrapbooking site, Shabby Princess, that offers full kits you can download for free.  The kits come with patterned papers, embellishments, alphabets and all kinds of digital goodies.  There was so much to play with, I could have easily made 30 magnets.  But who really needs 30 magnets?  It was tough to do, but I narrowed it down to 12 so she wouldn't be opening the gift secretly thinking, "Cute but…who really needs 30 magnets?"  I resized my favorites to fit the marbles and cut out little squares.

These little squares make me happy, I don't know why—they're like mini Polaroid art or something.  I glued the squares to the backs of the marbles using Mod Podge and let them dry overnight.  Once they were dry, I trimmed closely around the edges and used Aleen's craft glue to attach a magnet to the back of each one.

I like to package them in metal tins, 'cuz hi, they're magnetic.  I found this one at Michael's and dressed up in a beachy bow.  Isn't it cute??

I hope you like your magnets, Sommer!  Happy Surf-day, I mean Burf-day!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Memorial Day weekend... the unofficial start of Summer, and what more American way to spend it than at a Yankees game?  For my Hero's birthday, we planned a vacation to New York and I surprised him with tickets to the game.  It was awesome!  I was going to just stick the tickets in his birthday card, but I thought it would be more special if I made him one instead.

I went online and found all kinds of images to use.  The Life photo archive is a great resource for every kind of historical photo you can think of.

The photo of the field on the inside of the card is actually the view from the seats we'd be in!  I got it from the Yankees site.  Of course, this guy wasn't there the day they took that picture...

This guy must have been the biggest Yankees fan I've ever seen...literally!  Seriously, look at his friend next to him, normal size dude, and there's GIANT man.  Thank God he moved finally.

I wish I would have been able to take some pictures of the new stadium, but we got delayed on the train (good old LIRR) and we didn't get there till the 3rd inning, so we didn't get to walk around too much.  We had a great time though, and I got to eat the best pretzel I might have ever had.  I can't tell you how thrilled we were just to be home in NY, and to be there with the Yankees on his birthday??  Awesomeness.

Five Senses Friday

) hearing (
To the Sea, new Jack Johnson.  From the Clouds is instant happiness.

) feeling (
The difference between New York hot and Florida hot.

) tasting (
Chicken calypso with Island Peas and Rice (I wish I took a picture of it!), and Carvel cake for dessert.

) smelling (
Sweet Pea Body Splash I totally forgot I had.

) seeing (
This quote, from two separate friends on the same day (think someone's trying to tell me something?)
"If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything." ~Win Borden