Make It Monday - Magnetic Memo/Lap Boards

Check it Out!  Above is my creativity board!  I made it using scrapbooking supplies and a metal cookie tray.  Why a metal pan?  Well it's magnetic and makes for a great lap tray or it can be hung up on the wall.  These are super simple to make and can be made using so many different themes and different pans too, you could use a round pizza tray. 

 

  The really great thing is you can pick up these metal pans for $1 or $2.   I also pick up these memo/list pads when they are clearanced, add in a few supplies you already have laying around and this is one of the quickest and easiest gifts to whip up. 

Here’s the basics:

*Supplies: 1 metal pan- pizza pan or cookie sheet, printed paper-1 12 x 12 sheet for the pizza pan or 2 sheets for the cookie sheet, chipboard letters and other shapes, ribbon, and buttons, ink pen, hot glue gun, stick on magnets, magnetic memo list, sticky note pad, etc…
*Cut your paper to fit inside the pan (I used my cake plate to cut the circle) and glue down. Trim around inside if you like with ribbon.
*Use a corner rounder punch to get the paper to fit into the corners.

You can use hot glue or gorilla glue works great on metal.  It's up to you, everyone has a glue they prefer. 

*Add magnetic strips to the back of notepads (if they don't come that way) and onto buttons and other small items to make magnets out of them, that way they can be moved around and replaced when empty. 

There are so many reasons I like to use te cookie sheets.  One, you can use either side, use the inside up and you have a tray.  And two, you can hang them either way by adding a ribbon hanger to the back. 

If you know me, then you know I love to make gifts that are personal to the recipient and that's why I love to make these.  Here are few others that I have done:

This is Tori's, she uses it as a lapdesk.

Because you can use these as lapdesks, they make great learning boards too!  Just cut out some letters or make some with stickers, you can even use those plastic ones with the magnets already in them.  A cheap way to create magnet sheets is to use those free magnetic advertisements that come on the phone book.

These can be modified for older kids too, use words printed on magnet paper and make columns for verbs, nouns, etc...  You could even do math!

The possibilities are endless... you could add pockets and make a bill organizer. Add some lines for a calendar grid, make up some days and month magnets and you got a magnetic calendar that never expires!