Magnetic Float Experiments

In my summer spare time I tried to make a thing float by using magnets. A levitating pen or whatever. This showed up to be extremly difficult. The magnets ither jumped away or just jammed together. Has anyone succeded doing this?
I have alot of theoretical solutions, but they quickly showed to be nonworking when testing around. The magnet forces seems to glue together in most cases. Like using three northpointing magnets, and try to place a repulsing southpointing magnet on a pendlum (to keep it from rotate around) in the middle. It ither jumped away, or falled through. No matter how I adjusted the gaps, angles or pendlum weight.