My inspiration for making these were the “Tetrius Puzzle Game Magnets” from ThinkGeek. I had a TG gift certificate I had to spend and came across them. I thought they would be cool to put on the fridge or on my metal cabinet at work. As luck would have it, they were out of stock at the time and I started thinking… it should be easy to make something like that at home for much less than $10 for a set. So, what follows is how to make your own.

[Thinkgeek store-bought plastic Tetris magnets]	[home-made Geekcrafts Tetris magnets]

Supplies

• wooden cubes – $2.99 at Michael’s for 42 cubes
• glue – I used some wood glue I had on hand
• magnetic adhesive sheets – $1.00-$1.50 at the dollar store or Michael’s – I used some I had on hand
• spray paint – could be $1.00 per can if you have to buy them – I used paint I had on hand

Total cost for me: $2.99
Potential total cost if you have to buy everything – up to $10.50

Total time (not counting drying time): about 2 hours

I started scouring stores trying to find cheap squares/cubes I could use for Tetris blocks. I found nothing at either dollar store I tried and finally found these blocks at the craft store Michael’s for $2.99 for 42 cubes:

I used wood glue I had on hand to glue the blocks together. The magnetic adhesive sheets can be found at some dollar stores, or craft stores like Michael’s or A.C. Moore. I used 5 different colors of leftover spray paint I had on hand. Purists will want to use the correct colors for each tetromino. I was going for cheap though.

Step 1 – organize

Put your blocks out and arrange them in the Tetris shapes you are going to make.

Step 2 – paint the blocks

I used paint I had on hand. You could get creative and use whatever paint you have on hand, neon paint, go strictly by the book for the colors, or even stain them different shades (I think that would look really classy).

I chose to only paint 5 of the 6 sides since the other side wouldn’t show. I also had some spray lacquer on hand so I went over them after painting with a coat of lacquer too. The lacquer made them nice and shiny.

Here they are arranged but not glued:

Step 3 – glue the blocks

Once the paint has thoroughly dried, use your wood glue and glue the blocks into the correct shapes. The glue took a while to dry – I think I let them dry overnight. No pics taken of the gluing process – it’s pretty straightforward.

Step 4 – cut the adhesive magnetic sheets

Once the shapes have dried, use them as templates to cut the magnetic sheet. The magnetic sheet can be cut with ordinary scissors and the cuts don’t have to be neat or perfect since the magnets will be on the back of the shapes and not really seen.

Step 5 – apply the magnet cutouts

Now, remove the adhesive from the magnetic cutouts and apply them to the Tetris shapes. I put a little bit of glue on it too just to make sure it stuck.

Finished

That’s it – you’re done! Put them on the fridge, a filing cabinet, etc. and show off your geekitude!

A few ideas for variations:

• Stain each shape with a different wood stain for a classy look (similar to Woodpixels)
• Paint all sides of the Tetris shapes, don’t attach magnets, and instead attach a keychain hook to each one to make Tetris keychains. You may have to use stronger glue for this – I haven’t tried it
• Paint all sides of the Tetris shapes, don’t attach magnets, and attach a small hook and use them as ornaments for your rear-view mirror in your car.

Enjoy your Tetris Refrigerator Magnets! I hope you enjoyed our first-ever tutorial here at GeekCrafts.com