Magnets for Lace Day

Every year the North Carolina Regional Lacers holds Lace Day in the spring in Chapel Hill, NC. It's a day of gathering with lacemakers from all over NC and part of Virginia to take mini classes, hear a lecture, take care of guild business, and display all kinds of handmade lace. Usually there is a vendor selling threads and tools, mostly for bobbin and tatted lacemaking. Those who register to attend also receive a goody bag.

This is the 4th year that I've volunteered to make magnets for the goody bags. Previous years' magnets were hearts, stars, and butterflies. This year it's balloons. Each magnet has a small piece of tatting...nothing fancy because I usually need to make about 90 of these to supply all the bags.

Over the years, I've purchased paper punches to have something different each year. This year's punch was smaller than those I've used before. I thought it would be too small to make a good magnet so I mounted the white balloons on scalloped circles of card stock in various colors. Each circle was coated with high gloss Mod Podge. After drying, the balloon piece was attached and then coated with Mod Podge Extreme Glitter.

The tatted pieces were rings of 10 picots separated by one double stitch. The thread is a DMC size 80. I left the tails on the rings so they would hang down like strings tied to a balloon. I gave each ring a swipe with more of the Mod Podge to make sure they would stick to the paper and to give them a little more sparkle.

After every thing was dry, I attached pieces of peel and stick magnet to the backs. This is the kind of magnet that is used to make magnets out of business cards. You can cut them into smaller pieces with regular scissors.

Every year it's fun to come up with a new idea for the magnets. I already have planned what I'll be making for next year's NCRL Lace Day.