Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Magnetic Busy Boards

We are getting rid of our TV.  Yes, it will be gone, finito.  We are finally having some beautiful weather and all my 2 year old wants to do is watch cartoons. Well no more. So I have been trying to come up with some fun things for him to do to keep himself entertained and this week I came up with these...
And I am in love! They were so fun to make and Mr. Finn absolutely adores them (A+ for mom!). And they were super easy. 

Materials Needed:
Dry erase board
Pencil Case
Clamp
2 Metal Clasp Rings
 Sheet Magnets
Face Print out

I started out with a magnetic dry erase board from Walmart. These measure 11X11".
I used a ruler and found the middle of the board and used a dry erase marker to draw the shape of the face and then traced over the dry erase marker with a sharpie.

Next step was to drill 2 holes in the top (mark where to drill using the holes on the pencil bag)
And then I used E600 to glue a cute bulldog clamp right in the center of the top.
And use the metal rings to attach the bag to the dry erase board.
 Next thing I did was freehand some face parts (eyes, nose, mouth, ect.). I also made a second board that was for animals. I laminated all of the drawings and then cut them out.
Then I placed all of the pieces onto the magnet sheets and cut them out.
All of the pieces are easy to store in the pencil bag, and I also put some colored pencils in each bag so that we can attach some paper to the clip and they can have a cool little coloring board. These keep my boy entertained for quite a while, and trust me, that is saying something.
If you don't want to freehand the magnets yourself you are more than welcome to download the ones that I drew. Keep in mind these were all done with pencil and markers so they are by no means professional, but I think that it adds to the charm!

Download the Face Pieces here
And the Animal Pieces here
*Make sure to set the pages to letter size when printing (or 8 1/2X11)

And don't forget to check out all of the awesome places that we are linking to here!

27 comments:

  1. What an absolutely brilliant idea! You should contact a toy manufacturer stat.

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  2. WOW, your kids are lucky!! This is such a cool activity for kids. KUDOS! Thanks for sharing!

    ~ALison
    http://oopsey-daisy.blogspot.com/

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  3. This really looks fun! Buh bye TV :)

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  4. How FUN! Thanks for joining us for Anything Related!
    ~Bridgette

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  5. THis is amazingly creative! Love the idea.

    Thanks for sharing your images! I think they are adorable.

    Thanks for linking up with What are little boys made of?

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  6. This is a great idea1 And I agree, the handmade drawings add to the charm.

    Thank you for participating in the Creative Therapy session at Life in the Pitts!

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  7. Very creative! That might be a good project for my oldest daughter this summer as we've got several little ones who would love to play with that!

    Thanks for the great idea!

    Sarah

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  8. WOW! Waht a great idea! I love it! :)

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  9. This is so darling! We have a long old road trip coming up-I am thinking that these would be perfect to help with the entertainment. Thanks for the fabulous tutorial!!!

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  10. Visitin and following from FTF!! Wow! Awesome project and tutorial!!

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  11. Thank you for sharing this. I'm going to have to make both of them for my toddler!

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  12. What a clever and creative idea! My little guy would love these! Super cute! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! ~ Stephanie Lynn

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  13. That looks like so much fun!

    I'm a new follower! Hope you can top by http://www.cookcleancraft.com/ sometime!

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  14. Oh, I am sure this would keep any kiddo busy for hours! What a fun idea! Thanks for linking up with us this week!

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  15. What a great idea, and I love how you can customize them to whatever theme your little one would like best.

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  16. so cute! come and link up and help make monday marvelous :)

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  17. Super cute idea! Love the added bag to the top! Thanks so much for joining The Sunday Showcase. I greatly appreciate it! Hope you have a wonderful week! ~ Stephanie Lynn

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  18. Those are stinkin' cute!! I love that you put the pencil holder on them, great idea!

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  19. These are super cute and super creative! Thanks so much for linking up to Be Inspired last week!

    Chelsea

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  20. Hi Sammy! Just wanted to let you know I’ll be featuring your magnet boards today! Stop by and grab a featured button if you like! Thanks again for joining the Sunday Showcase! Hope to see you again next week! ~ Stephanie Lynn

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  21. hi sammy and ruth- love this, i am a new follower don't know how i have missed ya'll. I also featured you magnet boards today at jameehomemaker.blogspot.com

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  22. AWESOME! Great Idea :) thanks for linking up to Making Monday Marvelous [MMM]!!

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