Recycle Magazine Pages And Make Artful Crafting Paper

Hey fellow packrats, I’ve got a great recycling craft idea for you, you know to help you unload some of those piles of old magazines! You can make some really artfully striped crafting paper using old magazine pages, and believe me it is so much fun you’ll want to make a bunch, Roll up your recycled magazine page paper once you’ve completed a nice long strip, and save it for the future, Hmm, okay better yet use it to make something fun so you can make some more, and of course make a dent in that pile of magazines.

What can this fun recycled paper for you ask? Well, you’ve come to the right place as this happens to be recycling crafts central. Keep on reading for the how to, (can you guess how it is made? hint, no glue involved!) as well as a list of ideas for crafting with the paper.

You’ll Need:

• recycled magazine pages, preferably with lots of color
• contact paper, hopefuly you’ve got some scraps lying around
• a craft knife and ruler plus cutting board, or a plastic photo cutter (you know that paper cutter looking plastic thing, I picked some up for just $2 or so, not great quality, but certainly a good idea for kids as there is no exposed blade)

How To:

1. Sort magazine pages according to color grouping if you so desire, I made papers that were reds, blues and pastels, and one that was brights of all kinds
2. Cut magazine pages into strips of any width, though somewhere between 1/4″ and 1/2″ is likely the best. Very thin could look amazing, but would be more work, as you’ll see once you start
3. Strips can be placed either horizontally across the width of your piece of contact paper, or diagonally. Placing horizontally is much easier, as strips are all the same size and there isn’t the need for much trimming, horizontally laid stripes requires a bit more effort, but may look even more amazing than straight stripes, you decide!
4. The width of contact paper that you’ll use depends on how you’ll lay the strips, meaning the contact paper for strips layed horiztonally will be cut according to the lenght of the strips, whereas strips layed on the diagonal require a smaller width. Hope that makes sense!
5. Peel backing off small section of contact paper and start laying, with precision, strips of magazine paper onto the sticky contact paper. Trim uneven edges, and voila, lovely right?

Ideas for Using Magazine Page Crafting Paper:

1. Wrap it around cans to make great looking storage containers and gift packaging.
2. Wrap it around toilet paper tubes to make fun little treat packages (staple both ends closed after filling)
3. Use it to make fun greeting cards, gift tags etc.
4. Cut in strips and use to make paper chains
5. Cut shapes of any kind and use for making garlands and other holiday decorations
6. Use as background paper for mounting a large black and white photo
7. Use it as gift wrap for small packages
8. If the results are especially lovely cut a piece to size and stick it in a frame!
9. Large initials and numbers cut from this paper would look great
10. Ah and of course, one can make paper flowers, accordian folded medallions, sky is the limit!