Oct 20, 2006
Making Moo-gnets
So, when I received my Moo mini cards a couple of weeks back, I was so taken with how they felt and looked and how they worked together as a set, that I didn’t want to give them away. I seem to remember saying at the time that they were so sumptuous I wanted to eat them. Ahem.
That got me thinking: what if I did something else with them? What if I could use the cards’ form, but not for their intended function?
So I got to thinking about mounting them, somehow - lining them up and framing a load of them in a giant frame. I’m still sure that theat might work, but you’d have to find a way of ensuring that they didn’t slip out of alignment.
So then I started thinking about how to make things stay put…and that made me think: magnets.
….And THAT made me think: Moognets.
With a couple of simple supplies, and not a lot of time at all, I whipped up a set of fridge Moognets. The cards are just the right thickness for sticking on - any thinner and they’d be too flimsy. I think they look great!
I’m thinking about experimenting some more - perhaps with just food-related designs, or (even better!) individual words, so that I could use it like a giant set of magnetic fridge poetry. That would rock.
In the meantime, here’s how I did it:
You will need: Moo mini cards, scissors, self-adhesive magnetic tape (20mm) - I got mine from ebay, but craft shops (especially model-making shops) may have it too - and a big, heavy book.
1. Chop lengths of magnetic tape with the scissors. The lengths should be about 1/2″ or so. You will need two for each magnet. (Incidentally, I tried using one continuous strip of tape across the entire back of a card, but it was a bit too magnetic - difficult to lift off a magnetic surface, plus I figured if you can get away with using less tape…more moognets!)
2. Peel off the tape backing and stick one little square at each end of the back of a moo card
3. Put on a flat surface and lie under a heavy book….Not you, silly: the moognet. Because the tape is stored on a roll, and therefore wants to naturally curl, you’ll need to make sure the adhesive sticks flat to the card. A nice heavy book should handle that: I like John Peel’s autobiography - a truly weighty tome. Also good for reading.
4. Repeat, until your fingers get bored. Set up a little production line. Recruit some elves, or small children. Don’t bother trying to get the cat involved, though: mine was having none of it.
5. You will soon have a nice juicy stack of moognets. You will feel chuffed. You should.
6. Attach to magnetic surface of your choice. Filing cabinets and drawers work.
7. As do fridges. Obviously.
8. Er, that’s it.
Hehe, that’s a great idea! Love it!
Nice idea Meg. Blog Peter.
Just needs a pic at the end of you and the cat waving to the camera.
To be added to your Flickr ‘how to’ pool? I spotted that by accident.
Thanks for reminding me - ’tis done!
Genius.
Very cool!
[...] Check out this link on how to make them into your own magnets. [...]
I want moo cards! And moognets!
Hmmm, probably need to get a Flickr account first, eh?
Great idea
[...] Make fridge magnets out of MOO cards A nice use of the popular MOO cards (tags: moocards howto) [...]
Fridge Moognets…
Meg Pickard has a great entry on her blog about using the Moo MiniCards as fridge magnets.. It’s just a fantastic idea, and really well suited for them (amongst the other uses are bookmarks, house move cards, door stops,……
I have been ordering magnetic business cards (and putting my images on them) from VistaPrint. Every month or so they have an offer of 25 for “free”. (You actually pay a couple of pounds to load your image up and you pay postage, so it’s not really free, but it’s not expensive).
I often see DIY ideas, and roll my eyes at the crap people think of. But you’ve definitely thought of something unique, creative, and an actually good idea.
Thanks for sharing. I going to JoAnn fabrics and crafts today to get magnetic tape.
By the way….beside being a great idea, your photos are excellent.
[...] Meg Pickard made some lovely fridge magnets using her Moo mini cards and some self-adhesive magnetic tape. That magnetic tape is a lovely thing indeed. Meg’s mind wanders (emphasis mine): I’m thinking about experimenting some more - perhaps with just food-related designs, or (even better!) individual words, so that I could use it like a giant set of magnetic fridge poetry. I love that idea, and I’ve been thinking about that myself, but I haven’t gotten around to actually doing it yet. [...]
I love these!!! Moognets!!! Moognets!!! Moognets!!! Gotta make my Moognets with my new Moocards!!!
This is what I did with mine too! They’re perfect for fridge magnets.
[...] meish dot org » Making Moo-gnets Man I love the idea … this is so HOT, I want this: NOW ! :-) (tags: flickr howto tips fridgemagnets moo) [...]
[...] Moognets [...]
Good choice of big, heavy book :)
[...] What will you do with those hundreds of Moo mini cards? You can’t possibly give them all out. Why not make cute little magnets out of them? Meg Pickard explains how using magnetic tape. It’s so simple but I can imagine that this would be a nice birthday card filler especially with a personal photo (along with the obligatory gift of lottery tickets or money of course!) [...]
9. Keep your moognets away from your hard drive and other similar storage devices.
I read that kids at school aren’t playing around with magnets and iron filings any more because the magnets wreck the school PCs that they are all glued to. :(
WOW! Love your idea! I’m going to do the same with my Moo cards! Thanks ;-)
[...] Another thing not to miss is the Moognets mod that Meg Pickard came up with. [...]
Excellent idea. Thanks for sharing.
yesterday i was starring at my moo cards and wondering how would i place them at my message board… there you go!
thanks a lot for the tape tip!!!
Thanks for sharing! I just got my moo mini-cards and like you, don’t want to give them away. Can’t wait to buy my magnetic tape and hang these bad boys up at work and on my fridge.
Fantastic. I’m totally going to do it. Thanks for the great idea.
If you wanted to mount them to frame them, you can use this v cool temporary adhesive to attach them to a backing card before putting it into the frame (and thus prevent them moving). It’s acid free and solvent free, so good for photos.
It’s called HERMA Transfer Removable Glue, and comes with a handy roller-dispenser. We use these for all our photo mounting and frames, as it stops the blighters wiggling around. Available here; http://www.lainesworld.co.uk/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?LNG=en-US&page=L/CTGY/CARDHERMA
(scroll down for the removable kind - the top ones are permanent glues).
I did think that the old cigarette-card mounts might work, but I am not sure of the dimensions.
good choice of book :)
this is awesome… will definitely try this with my mini cards! thanks for sharing your brilliant idea :D
you are brillant man! i love my moo cards. thanks for the great idea! i am going to find some magnetic tape.
[...] More info at the author’s blog. [...]
Great idea! I can’t wait to get me some magnetic tape.
Great idea! I’ll try this some time. Just need to get the magnetic tape. And funnily written as well…
[...] She wrote a nice little tutorial on how to create your own “moognet”. Check it out here! [...]
[...] Moo.com turns your flickr photos into mini business cards. Then Red Mum shows us how to turn those into keyrings after seeing Meg turn her Moo cards into fridge magnets. [...]
[...] meish dot org » Making Moo-gnets Moo cards as fridge magnets. Nice (tags: moo DIY fridge-magnets howto) Filed in Del.icio.us on November 1st, 2006. [...]
you just gave me a great Christmas gift idea! thanks!
Cool, especially the book selection. Will be making these now.
[...] The thing on the left is a roll of magnetic tape. I’m in the process of turning the cards into magnets. [...]
This is brilliant! And not only for own use but also as a gift idea, my mum will love them!
…I just love your idea and at the time I get my Moo’s, I’ll make Moognets :)!
Thnx,
rasha
[...] http://meish.org/2006/10/20/making-moo-gnets/ http://redmum.blogspot.com/2006/11/yet-another-moo-card-use-post-moofobs.html http://www.moo.com/blog/2007/02/27/boxing-clever/ [...]
Moo cards…
What a brilliant business model ! Partner with the world’s largest online photo community (Flickr) and offer a relatively inexpensive personalised card service featuring photos from the customer’s photo collection and in a non-traditional “cool” fo…
C’est génial!
I’m a pro shooter and like this idea as a flyer to promote my humorous work. However, does the Flickr logo have to be on there? Anyone know? I’d prefer to have only my own logo.
Cheers,
Paul.
Please check out my new blog, Photohumorist
This is a fabulous idea. I could use these to tie around a teddy bears neck with the sponsers info in case the bear is lost, and give each sponsor some to give away when poeple ask why we’re taking pictures of teddy bears, and use the magnets on the fridges of the sponsors so they never lose my info! Awesome idea. Thank you!!
Ciao~
Sandie Lee
Hey, great idea! I think I’ll order some cards soon…
[...] Os meus primeiros moo´s chegaram no princÃpio de Janeiro, e só agora me apercebo que já não tenho alguns dos exemplares, e que nunca os tinha fotografado. Se, a bem da verdade, fotografar fotografias não tem nada de extraordinário (e pode até parecer uma redundância…) uma outra verdade dos moo´s é que são sempre objectos únicos e versáteis (além de serem belÃssimos cartões de visita). Já tinha visto vários exemplares bonitos por aà (estes últimos são mesmo os meus favoritos), mas o que me chamou a atenção para rever o que sobra dos meus (antes que seja tarde demais) foi este post do Whip Up. Moos´s transformados em candeeiros ou até em Ãmanes é só uma pequena amostra da versatilidade destes cartões com nome de vaca (palavras dos meus filhos mais velhos). Gostei também das caixas para os guardar, e na febre de ontem à noite encomendei mais uma remessa, só com vários scans de tecidos… não consegui resistir à ideia Claro que também há um grupo no flickr para guardar fotos dos cartões e do que com eles se vai fazendo. [...]
Where I can order the self-adhesive magnetic tape?
@Alex: as I said in the instructions above, I got mine from ebay, but craft shops (especially model-making shops) may have it too.