Magnet Masterpieces

This morning as I rooted around in our homeschooling cupboard for some blank playing cards, I came across these old business magnets:

They begged to be altered, so this afternoon we created these:

We started by roughing up the surface with some sandpaper, then applying two coats of Liquidex Gesso, drying each with a hair dryer because, well, we're impatient artists. DD8 and her friend shared some paint (acrylic, for those of you who like to know) and half way through the project decided to sand off what they'd done and start again -- which accounts for a bit of a muddied background here on DD8's masterpiece (but I like the aged effect):

DD8 applied a sticker, and her friend (F6 we shall call her here :) chose to do a bit of stamping on top of the paint:

DS3 also applied some stickers to his thickly paint-mixed background. (I rather like the way the texture of his paint mimics the texture of the fridge! If you click on the picture, you might be able to see this better. But I suspect you might not care about THAT little detail ;)

I quite liked the yellow the girls chose, so I used a swatch of wallpaper that my cyber friend Daphne at Sew in Art kindly sent me in the mail (SNAIL mail -- I hardly ever get that any more! It was so delightful!) to stamp it on the gesso background. Then I applied my new little bird stamp and added a bit of bright blue with a Sharpie. (Can't seem to do a project without them!) I used rub-on letters for the "bliss" -- which is the theme for June in the Creative Every Day challenge. (Funny -- I'd been lamenting the absence of that in my life of late. I'm looking forward to reflecting more on it this month. I know it's there -- I just have to tap into it!) Finally, I added a paper flower (torn book pages inked and joined by a jeweled fastener) I'd made for another project. Oh -- and I went around the edge with the smushed nib of an old, black calligraphy marker to add some definition.

All of  our masterpieces were then swept over with a lick of decoupage glue to make them shiny and durable, and then dusted with a bit of fine glitter.

Kinda cute for some old magnets that have sat unused for years in the cupboard, don't you think?

Do you have any creative uses for old business magnets? (I still have lots to use up!)