Hama bead magnet ideas

Over the years on my blog I've shared lots of ideas for craft projects using Hama beads, and today I thought I'd share some of my favourite Hama bead designs which are perfect for turning into magnets. These make great gifts or party bag fillers and my daughter loves making these to sell at various school fairs. 

Click on the link to see the full tutorial.

Hama bead emoji magnets

These are definitely a favourite with my children. They love coming up with different designs based around different emojis. We also seem to always end up with far too many yellow Hama beads for some reason, so these are a great way to use them up!

Hama bead Tetris inspired magnets

These magnets are really fun to play with and rearrange on a magnet board by your desk.

Hama bead flower magnets

These flower magnets are made using a flower shaped pegboard, but if you follow the link to the tutorial you can see how to make similar Hama bead flowers using the square and hexagonal Hama bead pegboards. They are bright and colourful and a cheerful way to brighten up your fridge.

Hama bead Disney themed magnets

I made these Disney Cruise themed magnets for a Fish Extender exchange - a gift exchange which takes place on Disney Cruises. You could also use them to display some favourite photographs from a Disney themed holiday. They use the circular pegboard and you can make them in any size that you like. 

Hama bead mini Christmas wreath magnets

These small Christmas wreath magnets also use the circular Hama bead pegboard and are great for holding a small photograph or Christmas related image. You could even attach them to Christmas cards or gifts as a little extra present.

Hama bead flower magnets

Following on from my tin can flower with Hama bead flower decorations, I was looking around for different ways that I could use these sweet Hama bead flowers. I realised that they would make lovely magnets! So here's a little tutorial for Hama bead flower magnets. 

I made my flowers using the Hama bead small flower pegboard. It's not easy to buy this pegboard individually but is can be bought as part of this three board set - Flower, Pony and Princess pegboard set (affiliate link). I used just the top flower part of the design, not the leaf area. 

If you don't own this specific pegboard then that's not a problem at all. If you scroll to the bottom of this post I have included some similar flower designs using the small square and hexagonal pegboards which most Hama bead crafters will own.

 

If you are new to Hama beads, you might want to have a look at this post - Ironing tips for Hama beads. I like to iron my beads lightly so that you can still see the holes in the beads, and while they are still warm from ironing I leave them resting between some heavy books for just a few minutes so that they cool flat. Then it's time to turn them into magnets!

I've made Hama bead magnets using a variety of different adhesives and magnets and I've found that the most successful method is to use magnetic tape (affiliate link). You can cut it to size and then peel off the backing to stick to the back of the Hama bead design. This won't produce a very strong magnet but it will stay firmly attached to the plastic beads. If you want to make a stronger magnet I have also had success with a small neodymium magnet (affiliate link). Through trial and error I have found that the best way to attach these magnets is with a glue dot, although a glue gun also works well.

Simply affix a small strip of magnetic tape to the back of the magnet. You might find that the magnetic tape curves away slightly even when stuck down after being rolled up tightly. To prevent this I flatten the finished magnets underneath some heavy books for a day or two to make sure that the magnet will lie flat.

If you don't have a small Hama bead flower pegboard then you can make similar looking flowers using both the hexagonal and square Hama bead pegboards. Here are a couple of designs that you could use:

If you are looking for some more ideas using the small Hama bead flower pegboard then you might also like these Hama bead craft ideas:

Hama bead flower wreath

Hama bead flower bouquet

Tin can flower pots with Hama bead flowers

Hama bead Tetris inspired magnets

Hama beads lend themselves really well to pixel art, and I love using them for different computer game related designs. So I decided that I'd have a go at making some Tetris shape inspired magnets. These magnets are really fun to keep on the fridge and rearrange into different designs and shapes - the children love playing with them! Tetris was one of my favourite computer games as a child, and I would spend hours playing it. A set of these magnets would make a lovely retro gift for a friend.

These are the designs that I used for my Tetris shapes. I realise that the yellow square should really be larger, but I was suffering from a shortage of yellow beads! Of course you don't need to just have one magnet for each shape, you can make as many as you like, and you don't need to stick to the official colours because there have been so many different versions of Tetris that pretty much any colour goes.

Here are the pieces once they've been ironed. Because they are quite small you don't need to worry too much about them warping as they cool, but make sure that you iron them well so that the beads are firmly fused.

Related article - Tips for ironing Hama beads. 

To turn the Hama bead shapes into magnets I used some magnet tape. I've used various ways of adhering magnets to Hama beads and this magnetic tape has worked the best so far. It's sticky on one side so you don't need to use any glue, and it's easy to cut to size. If you don't have any magnetic tape you can also use pieces cut from magnetic sheets which can be glued on, or stuck using a Glu Dot. I used two pieces of tape for most of the pieces to make sure that they will stick evenly to the magnetic surface.

When you are sticking on the magnets be careful because in order to be completely correct some of the shapes are not reversible, so you need to make sure that the magnets are going on the back side!

It's such fun to try and fit them together in different ways!

If you liked these magnets you might also like these posts:

Hama bead Emoji magnets

Hama bead Minecraft keyrings - I've also used these Minecraft designs to make some fab magnets

And if you are looking for more Hama bead inspiration you can find lots of posts on my Hama beads page, including lots of seasonal ideas. Happy Hama beading!