6 Valentine's Day Magnets + Free Cut file

Hello friends!! With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I thought it was high time to put the finishing touches on these Valentine’s Day Magnets that have been swimming in my head for the past month or so.

Last year, I helped my niece create Valentine’s Day cards for her family, they were one of the first projects I tackled with my Silhouette Cameo (it was a love hate relationship at first), and this year I recruited her help yet again! New tradition, I think so!

Don’t own a Silhouette? Click here for your chance to win one (entries accepted until 1/31/14).

Yep, I’m a proud auntie- she even shared her milkshake with me!

Anywho, my niece sat on my lap as I designed the magnets. And of course I requested her stamp of approval on all of them. Since she was kind of the boss, it was only appropriate to ask if she'd be cool with sharing the files and she said "you bet, Auntie Trisha." So my friends, you can download the Silhouette Heart Cut files here (or click the image below).

Like the DIY Planner Cover, Tabs, and Dividers- our main supply for this project was cardboard. This time we used empty boxes to Banquet meals (not shown below), and let me tell ya, they were a FAR better material than cereal boxes. Although not my favorite meal/snack, Banquet boxes are the perfect thickness, already have a plain white side (for ease of painting), and only require one double cut pass (at least for my machine). For a wordier post on how to cut with cardboard- including cut settings, check out the post here.

We also used these supplies:

If you look close- on the right side of the photo, we used magnets from old ‘promo’ magnets we’ve acquired over the years-- everything from our local balloon store, to various local realtors. Before cutting into the magnets, I transferred the business' contact info to my contacts list. Easy way to reuse materials you have lying around? Alright fine, I’m cheap and lazy and I never seem to find magnets at the craft store.

Other fun materials to consider: coordinating scrapbook paper/printed pattern paper, wrapping paper, washi tape, yarn, etc. Get creative folks!

After the hearts were run through the Silhouette (the Coverstock Heavy- 105 lb to 122 lb setting worked for us) and finished cutting, my niece excitedly took a paintbrush to some of the hearts and added some much needed color. She was also introduced to creating with glitter- sorry sis!

TIP: After photographing, I found my favorite method to apply glitter is to cover the area with wax paper, glob glue over the sections to be glittered, smooth the glue out (with my finger), and apply glitter generously. The leftover glitter can easily be transferred back to its container since the wax paper is flexible. Then, let it dry and a few coats of mod podge so the glitter will stay put.

Once everything was dry, we played with a few configurations and glued everything in place. When it came time to attach the magnets, I went in and trimmed the promo magnets to size and attached them using more Elmer’s Glue.

These two hearts were made with banquet cardboard with a light pink scrapbook paper backing:

The next set of magnets were painted and glittered:

Do you have a hard time finding specific materials at the craft store? Do you demand approvals find a way to get kid’s involved in fun little projects? What’s your favorite method when working with glitter? Which magnets are your favorite?

P.S. We were not paid or perked from any of these vendors; we just happily picked up the supplies necessary for the job.

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