Collage Foil Magnets

My cousin was the first person I saw making one of these.   I think it might have been a school project of his.  I made something very similar at school, using an old collage printing block project.  I have since changed the finish slightly.

You'll need thick/strong cardboard, textured items, tinfoil and magnet - the flat printed advertising ones are great to use.  Just rip off the advertising paper.  You'll also need PVA glue and some sort of paint / varnish / glass paint. 

Start by deciding what shape your magnet will be.  I made some fish for my boys.  Cut out the cardboard.  Then the fun part.  Children can definitely take part for this.  Think of things you can collage with that make different textures.  For the fish I used: netting from a smoked chicken, lace, foam netting from duty free bottles, buttons, string, beads, cardboard cutout shapes.  Take a look around and you'll find lots of different things you can glue.  PVA is good because it will dry flat, but if you like, a glue gun is faster drying, just lumpier.  You can also use a glue spray, but I find it sticks to my fingers too much with this type of collage and if you've got children helping PVA is the way to go.

Once fully dry (or dry enough that the textures wont slip around), cut a piece of tinfoil large enough to wrap around your magnet shape.  Cover collage with glue and gently press tinfoil over.  You are moulding the tinfoil over your collage textures.  Be careful around high contrast areas as the foil can easily rip.  Kids should be fine doing this too.  Theirs might not be perfect, but they are perfectly capable of doing this.  Glue your magnet to the back.

Give it at least an hour to dry a bit.  Now for the colour.  The easiest thing to do here is to get some glass paint and go crazy.  You can get a more painterly effect by mixing ink or dye with an acrylic varnish too.  Or paint is fine, you'll just lose the shine from your tinfoil.  When I did this at school, we used oil based printing inks in the way that you polish shoes.  I remember rubbing on a burnt sienna colour,  then buffing it off with a clean cloth.  The foil kept its shine and went a coppery colour.