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Thursday 12 March 2015

Fridge Magnet Note Pegs

Having started with fridge magnets, I simply could not help myself and carried on with the same theme. I had a brand new set of wooden clothes pegs lying on my craft table. I use only plastic pegs for the washing and purposefully but these for crafts. Can anyone relate?


The first step is to paint the pegs. I use a flat brush which is about 1 cm wide (the numbers vary greatly, but anything between a 6 or 8 should work well). To paint the rounded areas inside the pegs, consider switching to a round brush. I selected acrylic paints for the purpose and then quite unintentionally ended up painting it with craft paint. Either will work very well and I recommend that you use what is at hand.




While the paint is drying, which should not take long at all, you can cut the magnet to size. Measuring the pegs, I find that they are exactly 1 cm wide and 7,5 cm in length. 1 cm is a very convenient width since a lot of products are manufactured to be 1 cm wide. This is indeed fortunate. The printable magnet sheet that I will cut the magnet strips from, is 21 cm wide. This means that I can cut magnet strips for 3 pegs from each 1 cm length. Seeing as I am going to make 6 pegs, I cut two strips of 1 cm each. Each of these are then cut into three lengths of 7 cm. I use a craft knife and metal ruler along with a cutting mat to make sure that I measure and cut accurately.





I use the trusted Tombow glue to adhere the magnet strips to the clothes pegs. The broad applicator tip lends itself beautifully to the job. Apply the glue to the painted peg and lay the magnet strip on top, white side down. Repeat this for all of the pegs and put them a side to dry properly before you continue.





It is time to turn the pegs over and start decorating the top sides. It is possible to work directly on the painted surface and get very PRETTY results, but I chose to add another dimension by using a combination of ribbons, beads and washi tape to decorate the tops even further. When using ribbon, measure the ribbon accurately by laying it down on the peg and cutting it to the correct length.


Stick double-sided tape to the peg and cut it to size.


Remove the paper strip from the double-sided tape to reveal the stickiness underneath.


Lay the ribbon on top taking care to line all the sides up properly.


Alternatively, you can also use the Tombow glue to adhere the ribbon to the pegs.




Washi Tape is self-adhesive and does not require additional glue. Simply stick it down on the peg and trim to size.


I found that the washi tape I used was slightly broader than the peg. If this is the case, simply turn the peg upside down on your cutting mat and trim the excess with a craft knife, using the peg as a ruler.



I have some beaded ribbon and I used this as well. This time I used the precision tip on the Tombow glue to add dots to the beads before sticking them down. I would use this same tip to apply the decorations in the next step as well.



It was time for the final touches. I chose to use a variety of objects to indicate the possibilities. You could even use buttons or found objects, like nuts and bolts, depending on the style you wanted to achieve. Bear in mind that when creating sets, it is best to incorporate a number of similar characteristics to group the items together, while still adding variety through differing elements to keep things interesting. The ones I made are too varied to work as a cohesive set.





There is no right way up with these pegs. Softer items can hang from them while stiffer objects can be inserted at the tops. This makes them wonderfully versatile. Stick them on the fridge and you'll have a convenient place to keep those temporary notes and business cards, photos and the kids' artwork.



For more crafty ideas and great products, visit APrettyTalent.com.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
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