When I opened up the big box of magnetic papers sent to me from CTD World Headquarters, I was excited to get playing with it! Jenny sent me all kinds of different ProMAG Magnetic papers to try out – from paintable to photo printable – so I got down and got crafty!
From left to right, there is a magnetic adhesive sheet, printable photo magnet, paintable magnetic vinyl, and magnetic paper. I’ll go in order as I played with each one of these.
I used the adhesive magnetic sheet on the back of fabric for a paper-pieced quilt block magnet that I made. I cut a piece of the magnetic sheet slightly smaller than my quilt block, peeled off the backing paper, and stuck it right to the back of the quilt block. Super simple.
It did a fantastic job of holding the quilt blocks in place on the refrigerator – the adhesive and the magnet were both strong enough, and it was easy to cut with regular scissors.
The photo printable magnets were next. I followed the directions, inserting a single sheet of ProMAG Magnetic Paper into my printer (a Lexmark Inkjet printer). At first, it didn’t want to print because the magnet sheet curled up slightly at the ends, and the printer didn’t register that there was paper in the tray. I played with the magnet sheet until it engaged, and then it was fine. I cut out the pictures with scissors.
The resulting prints aren’t the photo quality you’d get from sending photos to a photo lab – but they are the exact quality I get when printing on photo paper from my printer. And it was fun to have images from our trip only a few days before on the fridge!
The paintable vinyl claims that it “works with Scrapbooking Machines”. I wasn’t sure what kind of scrapbooking machine it was talking about – so I decided to try both a die-cut and blade-cutting machine. First I ran it through with a Sizzix die.
Because of the thickness of the magnet sheet, I used two “B” plates to make my die sandwich – and the blades cut through perfectly.
I can write re-occurring events on these dots and use them on our family’s magnetic dry-erase calendar.
I then tried cutting on my Silhouette. I made large letters – one for each person in the family – Mom, Dad, and the two kiddos. I wasn’t sure what setting to use, so I used the setting for the Silhouette brand magnet sheets.
At first, I thought that it hadn’t fully cut through (and it may not have), but by bending on the cut lines, I was able to very easily peel away my cut-out letters.
I then painted the letters. I grabbed four different kinds of paint to test them out on the paintable vinyl. I was having some trouble keeping the magnets flat while painting, so I attached them to the back of an old cookie sheet. That worked well to keep them in place.
I painted with Martha Stewart Glitter Paint, and DecoArt Multi-surface (the red). The glitter paint needed several coats to get good coverage, which is par for the course with the glitter paint.
With the red DecoArt multi-surface paint, I needed two coats to get a non-streaky finish.
I also tried DecoArt Patio Paint and Martha Stewart Multi-surface paint. I did one coat of each of these, which worked fine because they were a lighter color than the red. Though the blue multi-surface could have used a second coat to look less streaky.
After I let them dry overnight, they looked great. A fun place to put family notes or to hang pictures or drawings by each family member.
Finally, the magnetic paper. This is a sheet of magnet with paper securely attached on one side. I let my son help with this one.
It was a little frustrating to work with because it kept rolling back up into the shape it was in the packaging. Of all the magnet sheets, this is the only one that left me unsatisfied.
To need a cookie sheet for each person working on a drawing is frustrating – almost as frustrating as having the sheets roll up each time we lifted our hands! I found that even after I put my finished magnet on the refrigerator, it still didn’t lie flat.
Overall, the ProMAG magnetic paper was easy to use, and a great option for making fun and custom magnets for the fridge – though I would recommend sticking with the magnets that come flat, rather than those that are rolled up.
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Jenny Barnett Rohrs (@CraftTestDummy) says
Great review, Carolina! I love your tip on working on the back of a cookie sheet to secure the magnet paper. Thanks!
Susan Lang says
I love your blog, I read it every day. But for some reason, when I go to your home page, the Duck tape edition is always the first story. I have to hunt for today’s story. Have you noticed this?
Jenny says
Susan- I’ve started “pinning” the live contests to the very first position on the page so folks know that it’s open and they can enter. Since that one is over, it will no longer be there (but the new one will be when it goes live on Friday. If you are looking for a simple solution, sign up for our email list. You will get a notification to your inbox whenever there is a new post on CTD and it will give you the link to that article- so no more scrolling! Thank you for checking in. 🙂
Best,
Jenny
Susan Lang says
Jenny – I have to say you are on top on your game. That makes perfect sense. I do subscribe to your email, but sometimes I just go to your blog as I do all my daily reading from my list. But I will say, you always respond to a comment with a question. That is nice to know someone cares. Thanks for all you do.