You know how, when you first move into a new place, there are always a few things—ok, a lot of things—that you didn’t anticipate needing? Well, for me, one of those things was magnets. You don’t realize how necessary they are until you start receiving a bunch of wedding invitations in the mail and you have nothing with which to stick them to your fridge except a lone Alamo commemorative magnet.
Much to my chagrin, a pack of regular old magnets was surprisingly hard to find. Several unsuccessful trips to Target confirmed what I already knew: it was time to take matters into my own hands. After all, if I was going to order a bunch of blank magnets online, I might as well make them pretty. This revelation may or may not have come to me while I was absentmindedly scrolling (yet again) through Valentino’s rainbow-hued spring collection—et voila! The Rockstud Magnet was born.
Things I love about these magnets: they’re strong enough to hold an invitation and RSVP card to the refrigerator door without slipping, they allow me to pretend that I own, at last, a pair of Rockstuds, and they took practically no time to make. Let’s get started, shall we?
For this project, you’ll need the following:
• square craft magnets (mine were 3/4″ x 3/4″)
• leather (I bought a couple of bags of remnant leather at Hobby Lobby, but you can also order scraps on Etsy if you want to choose individual colors)
• gold pyramid nailhead studs (mine were 9mm x 9mm)
• seam ripper or small leather awl
• needle-nose pliers
• a pair of sharp scissors
• glue gun
1. First, cut out your pieces of leather by tracing the magnets in pen on the reverse side of the leather and carefully cutting out the rounded squares.
2. Center the stud on the square of leather and firmly press down for a few seconds so that the prongs leave indentations.
3. Using your seam ripper or awl, punch small holes in the leather, using the indentations as a guide.
4. Insert the prongs of the stud through the leather, and use your needle-nose pliers to flatten the prongs down, thus securing the stud.
5. Apply a pea-sized dot of hot glue to the top of the magnet (make sure you know which side attracts to the fridge!) and press the studded leather onto the magnet, holding firmly for a few seconds. Make sure you don’t use too much glue or it will seep out the sides.
6. Use your finished magnets to display pictures of bags and shoes you one day hope to own. Or, you know, the aforementioned wedding invites. The possibilities are endless!
