Souvenir Penny Magnets

My son collects souvenir pennies when we visit tourist attractions.

Souvenir pennies are small, inexpensive and apparently not illegal to make, so I feel like we are winning on all fronts.

Much like the playing cards that I collect, a souvenir penny is a neat reminder of a visit to a specific place.

Plus, this is something my son can collect his entire life. I’m not knocking the souvenir stuffed animal with this comment either. Okay, maybe a little, but we have more stuffed animals than Noah and his ark and at some point kids outgrow stuffed animals.

Right?!?!

Now, the problem with 8-year-olds and teeny tiny souvenirs is that they can be lost easily.

I found some in my purse. Some in the basket by the back door. Some in his ‘treasure’ box. I know we are still missing a few pennies that we put in an “extra safe” place. A place so safe I can’t remember where it is located.

We needed a plan to corral these souvenir pennies.

I decided to make Souvenir Penny Magnets out of them!

My son has a sheet metal map of the United States, which is the perfect spot to attach his souvenir penny magnets. I suppose he could even try to place the magnets on the map corresponding to where we got the souvenir penny, but I won’t be too particular about that.

All you need for this craft are souvenir pennies, magnets and glue. It’s that easy. You can use either a superglue that works on metal or hot glue.

I used my favorite ProBond Advanced Glue to attach the pennies to the magnets. This is the glue I used to affix the sheet metal map to a cork board in this post, so I know it holds extremely well. Plus, I knew a glob of hot glue would add more height to the finished magnet and I was trying to minimize that since my magnets were already pretty thick.

The ProBond Advanced Glue works best on smooth surfaces and, clearly, it takes longer to dry than hot glue.

When selecting your magnets you DO NOT want to use magnets that are bigger than 3/4-inch. My magnets just barely fit, but I was trying to use up items in my craft stash, so ‘just barely’ worked for me.

As my son’s collection grows, I might switch up how we display these souvenir pennies.

For now, this solution is useful and unique. Best of all, now that the souvenir pennies are on display, my son can see how his collection is growing – slowly but surely.

Happy collecting!

---

Thanks for hanging out with me today. Here are some other posts you might enjoy.

Tourist Maps Make Great Wrapping Paper

DIY Matchbox Car Magnets

Santa Belt Magnets

4-Banana Banana Bread

 

*affiliate links in this post*