Polymer clay brings me back to my childhood days of crafting. I use to love to create all sorts of creations with polymer clay, I even made a bunch of ornaments one year for Christmas and sold them at a craft fair. In addition to the ornaments I liked to make magnets and animal figurines from books I could buy at the craft store. I use to love to give these creations away as gifts too. I even still have one of the gifts that I gave to my Grandma years ago. This was a little doll I made from one of the craft books, I received this back after she passed away. She looks a little rough as I made it when I was about 10 years old. Some pieces have fallen off (arm and flower petal) but it is still special to me and a reminder as to how far I have come. So today I wanted to create some new modern DIY magnets with polymer clay.
There is just something about creating with your hands and working with clay brings me back to the days of playing with play-doh! There are so many tools now available to work with polymer clay but it also works to just use a basic knife and rolling pin.
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience, this means that if you click on a link and end up making a purchase I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. See my full disclosure and privacy policy for more information.
Supplies Needed for Polymer Clay Magnets
- Polymer Clay
- Poly clay tools (or rolling pin, butter knife and toothpicks work)
- Liquid polymer clay (nice but not a necessity)
- Magnets
- Glue (some magnets have self adhesive so this may be optional)
When I was younger I use to love t the books at the craft stores that had all the polymer clay projects in them. Nowadays there are so many tutorials on Pinterest, YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram. One project that I use to love to make was DIY magnets with my polymer clay. My Aunt actually still has one of my designs on her fridge, it has to be at least 25 years old! So that goes to show you that whatever you make will stand up to the test of time.
I like to make magnets with no stencil or cutout but if you do want to use cut-outs, I suggest cookie cutters as a great alternative so that you don’t have to buy any special cutters that you only use once.
Polymer clay comes in a huge variety of colors and even comes in liquid forms in tubes. I decided to make an easy dog and flower for this first round. These magnets are a great DIY project for kids.
I started by rolling a ball that was about 1″ in diameter and then used a glass drinking glass to flatten this down (you can also use a rolling pin).
I then created some ears and spots for the dog and used liquid polymer clay for the eyes.
I felt like the dog was missing something so I created a bow and used a toothpick to add on some details to the bow. The toothpick also came in handy to draw on the mouth of the dog.
For the flower I used the same technique for the center of the flower and then molded teardrop shapes for the flower petals.
In order to add a little more dimension to the flower I took the toothpick and poked holes in the center of the flower and lines on the petals.
In order to make sure they were attached well and weren’t going to break off I used a toothpick to blend the clay together on the backside and then used another piece of the purple to attach.
Once your designs are done you will want to transfer them to an oven proof dish and bake according to the package directions. There are many different brands of polymer clay available so each brand has their own baking instructions.
After the designs are cooled you can attach a magnet to the back. I like to use gorilla glue when attaching the magnet.
Now you have some cute magnets that would make a great craft for kids.
Leave a Reply