How to make your own nail art magnets

A couple of days ago I posted another magnetic nail polish mani and I commented how much I love magnetic nail polish.  I also commented how I feel the need to own every sort of magnet there is.  That really got me thinking about nail art magnets and the designs and I set to work this weekend to create some designs of my own.

This post will hopefully explain to you how you can make your own nail art magnets at home and use them with any magnetic polishes you have.

Here is a picture of the four magnet designs I created. Read on to learn how to create these yourself.

What are you going to need?

• a regular flat fridge magnet
• scissors
• pen
• card or plastic
• sticky tape

OK. Firstly, did you know that pretty much every single flat fridge magnet will create a beautiful line design?  You know the ones that you usually get from trades people or with handy calendars on them.  It's true.  But you will need to experiment with the magnets you have to see which ones create the size lines you want.  I tried about 5 different magnets, some had lines about 5mm apart, others were much smaller (like the one below) with lines about 1mm apart. Then there were lots in between - which is the size I created my new magnets out of.

As you can see, if you just want to do a regular line design, you can curl your magnet around your finger a bit to get the design all the way around. Especially if you have really curved nails sideways like I do.

Here is the example of how this magnet turns out.  I love how narrow the lines are on this one!

Make sure you're happy to destroy the magnet you choose, because you will be cutting it up.  Next, grab your pen and draw lines on the printed side of it indicating the lines of the magnetic polarization.  This really helps with positioning your designs later.  Here I've photographed a piece of paper with lines on it, to give you the idea of what to do.

Pretend that piece of paper above is your magnet and grab your scissors. Then cut up the magnet to form various designs.  

This first design is a simple chevron.  Just cut the magnet at 45 degree angles and then line up the magnet pieces so the lines are on a right angle to each other.

This design is the chevron.

I then made some zigzag lines by cutting the magnet in thin strips on a 45 degree angle, about 1-2mm thick.  I then aligned the strips so the lines formed a zigzag.

Here is the zigzag design.

Next, I cut small triangles with the magnetic lines going outwards which creates a multiple cross effect.

Here is the multiple cross effect.

Finally, I cut small triangles again, but this time with polarization lines going around sideways.  This creates a small square in the middle with concentric squares circling it.

Here is the concentric squares design.

Here is what my little magnets look like.  One you have the designs lined up, grab some double sided sticky tape and apply some to a small piece of plastic.  I used the back of an old credit card that I had cut up.  I then transferred my magnets onto the sticky tape, with the printed side down.  I then did some tests on a nail to see if the magnets were lines up ok.  If you need to adjust a magnet you can just lift if off the sticky tape and move it.  I did that with the chevron design so that both sides lined up when applied on my nail.

Finally I stuck a little label on the other side to indicate what each of my magnets were.

I'm really happy with the concentric squares design, because it's something I haven't seen anywhere else yet.  I wasn't quite able to get the lines on the cross to line up perfectly yet, so a little fiddling with the magnet positioning on the card is required.

There you go, now you have your own fancy magnets for nail designs.  Have you tried making your own nail art magnets?  I love to know if this works for you and to see any other designs you can come up with.