Family stick figure auto decals on a budget

I have always loved the cute little sticker "stick" people on the backs of automobiles. I have read articles like this one about the dangers of these decals and the information that they might provide to criminals about my family. But, I still wanted them.

Over the past few years, I have looked for them in stores and searched them out on websites, but they are always 5-6 dollars per figure plus shipping and I could never quite decide which ones I liked the best. At that price, it seemed like such a permanent decision.

But, I kept wanting them.

So, for my Sunday afternoon relaxing creative activity I decided to make some.

Sketches

First, I made sketches of what I wanted the people to look like.

I traced one of the magnetic sheets (2 for $2.99 at Walmart in the craft section) onto a piece of printer paper, and fit the pencil drawings inside that space.

Then, I colored in my little people. My husband the pastor, and me with my Higher Things t-shirt, and my oldest daughter with pink hair. She doesn't actually have pink hair, but it goes well with her personality, so there it is.

 I used permanent markers that we already owned, so I didn't figure these into the cost, although you would if you were planning this activity for a group or if you don't already use giant packs of multi-colored permanent markers for a million other projects. (probably less than $20 for all sorts of colors and then they would have lots of ink left in them when you finished this small project)

Next, I cut out the rectangle.

Then, I peeled the backing off of the peel and stick magnet and laid the rectangle of paper on top of the sticky side.

I cut out a piece of laminate to fit over the paper.
This is important because I plan to stick these on
the outside of the van, so just paper would get wet
and the ink would run and they would not last.

DISCLAIMER: I've never done anything like this before, so it's all guesswork. 

I'm just hoping it works. A huge roll of laminate cost us $5.78 and I used about 6 inches of it. We bought it for another project and having it here is what actually gave me the idea to do this. But, if you were planning this activity for a group, you would need to calculate this cost also.

I smoothed out the laminate and then started cutting out each person.

But, then, I decided to cut out just the rectangle around the figures. This works for me because our van is white. I may change my mind later, but I think it will look okay and the greater surface area will help them stay put.

This was so easy and so much fun. I think I am going to pick up some more of the magnet sheet and make some "paper" dolls and other objects for my 3 year old to play with on the refrigerator.