DIY // Party Animal Magnets

Once upon a time I featured a post from Hank + Hunt, here, for her DIY animal candle holders. I blame that post for ooh’ing and ahh’ing over plastic animals every time I see them now (nerd alert*). Since I apparently have a new found love for them, I thought I would come up with a project where I could use them for more than just birthday candles, and hence, decided to make them into magnets.

* for the safety of your reputation, never announce over the phone that you are “cutting up animals”, it gets awkward until you thoroughly explain yourself..

Plastic animals ($1 each at the dollar store)
Scissors
Super glue
Plastic/bottle caps
Spray paint
Magnet circles

1 | Cut the plastic animals in half with scissors, it’s surprisingly easy.

2 | Insert the caps into the open end of the animals.

3 | Spray paint them the color of your choice.

4 | Super glue the magnet to the back, and be sure to push in the cap far enough to for the magnet to be flush with the animal, I learned this by trial and error :)

What to use in case bottle caps don’t fit into your plastic animal:

-air dry clay
-thick cardboard cut-outs

Check out these other awesome posts!

* for the safety of your reputation, never announce over the phone that you are “cutting up animals”, it gets awkward until you thoroughly explain yourself..

Plastic animals ($1 each at the dollar store)
Scissors
Super glue
Plastic/bottle caps
Spray paint
Magnet circles

1 | Cut the plastic animals in half with scissors, it’s surprisingly easy.

2 | Insert the caps into the open end of the animals.

3 | Spray paint them the color of your choice.

4 | Super glue the magnet to the back, and be sure to push in the cap far enough to for the magnet to be flush with the animal, I learned this by trial and error :)

What to use in case bottle caps don’t fit into your plastic animal:

-air dry clay
-thick cardboard cut-outs

Check out these other awesome posts!

Comments

Nadia

06.07.12

These are amazing! Definitely going to add it to my crafts to-do list :)

Ashley said:

Let me know how they turn out :)

jewel7013

06.07.12

My first glance at these reminded me of all the men I have known who are avid hunters who love to display their trophies on the wall…

This is Taxidermy innovation at its best…:)

Adrian

06.07.12

Hey girl! I saw these animals chopped in half on instagram and now I’m glad to see where you were going with them.

Ashley said:

Hopefully they look much better than my Instagram photo :)

Renee

06.07.12

Need to do the magnets with the butt of the animals too – oh so cute!

Ashley said:

Haha, I agree! Hubby wanted me to use the butts, but I decided to stick with heads to make them seem more adult :)
- Glenda said:
  
  If you do both, I could see some amazing animal creations from the kiddos.. Hippo head, tiger butt…tiger head, horse butt…. fun stuff.

Hilary

06.08.12

These are seriously cute!!!

Ashley said:

Thanks, Hil! :)

nikki

06.18.12

I love that you spray painted them all one color! Looks great! Thanks for sharing!

Ashley said:

Thanks, Nikki!

Kate

08.06.12

Freaking Awesome!! xx

mollie

11.13.12

love these!! so much fun:) Question… what if the animals aren’t the perfect size for a bottle cap to fit inside as the base? Any other ideas of how you attach the magnets?

Ashley said:

You could use air-dry clay to fill the inside and it would definitely give it a really put together look. Or you could even use thick cardboard cutouts!

Mackenzie

06.20.13

Thanks so much for posting how to do this. I saw these on etsy and said I bet I could make those myself. :) I’m going to make them as wedding favors/ escort or place card holders!

Mackenzie

06.20.13

Btw I’m pinning this :)

Zoe Bleak (@zoebleak)

02.11.15

Have you had a problem with the caps+magnets falling out when pulling it off a metal surface? Or do the caps stay plugged inside the animal pretty well? Would you suggest using super glue for the cap as well?