So, my little Monkey LOVES to play with the stuff on the fridge. My mom keeps every paper that enters the house on the fridge. Not the best combination! And not literally every single paper, but there is a lot on that small magnetic box. We cleaned off the fridge within reaching height of The Monkey and let him play with some of the magnets. He loved it. The magnets weren’t special ones, but he terrorized and wrecked them. I decided he needed a little more durable, kid-friendly magnets to play with.
First, I found clip art on the internet of things he likes. You know, boy things… trucks, cars, tractors, dump trucks, bulldozers. That sort of stuff. Actually, I learned a very valuable lesson: When searching images on the internet, search “bulldozer”, NOT “back hoe”! Not the images I was wanting to display on the family refrigerator. Anyway, I copy and pasted them into Word, sized them big enough that he couldn’t swallow them… ’cause he so would if he could, then printed them out on regular white printer paper. Then, I put contact paper on the images and cut them out.
Next, I took a flexible cutting board (found mine at Wal-Mart. Three for like $2 or something.) I took some rough grit sandpaper and roughed up the cutting board. Ok, I admit that I skipped this step on my first go-round… but, the papers kept falling off. Once I roughed it up, the glue stuck better. I just used the cheap Wal-Mart brand boards. I’ve seen them in kind of an almost a clear, see-through sort of color, but the ones I used are just white.
Next, I used Tacky Glue to glue the cut out images to the cutting board. Clean up any excess that squeezes out under the edges. You could probably also use hot glue if you get the edges down quick enough. I laid heavy books on mine until they were good and dry. This is important because they tend to curl if they aren’t dried flat… Also learned from the first try on this project. (Haha, live and learn, right?)
Then, I cut the pieces apart. I left some of the cutting board around the border so they would be a little more durable and water spit proof. I put a line of hot glue on the edges of the papers to help hold them down, but Monkey pulled those off within like two days, so… that step is up to you. Ironically enough, he didn’t eat the hot glue. But, I’ll count my blessings on that one. (Yes, there is a water mark on the image, but I couldn’t find good clip art that didn’t have it… besides, my little Monkey won’t care.)
