Magazines.
They pile up and up and up. Magazines are plentiful all year long but this time of year it’s just downright crazy. We got in a glut of magazines the other day. All with Christmas ads. Magazines that will just end as fire starter or going to recycling. But there has to be a better use for some of it….right?
Right.
And you’re going to help me come up with creative ideas of things to do with all these holiday magazines. Why would you want to do that? The winner will get a $40 to spend at Spunky Eclectic. And you get to decide the winner.
Here’s the scoop:
Take all the magazines you have lying around and that you are willing to tear into and get creative. Do something good with them. Something decorative for the upcoming holiday season or something lasting, something that you can gift. Anything cool that doesn’t mean the magazines are heading into the trash pile.
Have it done by December 5th. Come back to this post and post a link to what you did. If you used a known tutorial please post a link to that tutorial. If you came up with the idea yourself, a tutorial would be awesome so we all can recycle too.
December 10th’s Want Not Waste Not Wednesday post will have a link to all the entries and a way for every one to vote. Why does anyone want to vote? One of the voters will be chosen at random to receive a prize as well! Everyone will get one week to vote and then I’ll tally up the winner. Not to get all sappy, but if we participate we’re all winners because we’re recycling.
Get going.
I wanna see what you come up with :)
Here’s mine (though my entry doesn’t count in the contest, I’m just bringing you some inspiration)
We cut out strips of yarn samples in yarn magazines:
Then we looped them all together in one of those chain garlands.
Miss 8goingon20 helped me put it together. It was a fun activity for the 2 of us to do together. Now it graces the doorway of my shop.
Boogie's Blog 
Great idea! I’m thinking napkin rings would be great using magazines or the samples from holiday gift wrap fundraisers that school have in their brochure.
I love this idea! I hope I can think of something. My wheels are spinning (the ones in my head not the one on my hearth).
Great idea! I was gonna say to shred and use as packing material, but that’s not very clever. I’ll see what I can come up with.
i made these in february, so i don’t think i can submit them, but i thought i’d show you anyway!
i made coasters for my mom, a full set, using pages from her backstock of real simple magazines, and a glue stick. they were very durable until my brother spilled an entire glass of soda on two of them. oh well. i intend to make her another set when i am all caught up on outstanding knitting projects.
I’m not sure if this counts because I am not actually about to embark on this process, but when I was a kid my mother had an old bead curtain she bought from a second hand stall at Portobello market in London. The beads were made from long pennant shaped strips cut from magazine and catalogue pages. These had been soaked in a clear glue and rolled tightly around some kind of central holder, roughly the size of a 2.5 mm needle. They were rolled from the larger end first so they created a bead that was wider in the middle than at the ends and was about 4 cm long. The beads were strung on a cord that was knotted and separated by a cm or so and hung from a top frame so that it was large enough to cover a door. She hung it from the back door to the kitchen to keep flies out in the Summer. It must have been very work intensive, but it was totally cool. Sorry no pictures – I don’t know if the curtain still exists. Just thought I would offer up the suggestion.
What a great contest! I hardly get any magazines, but even the few I do get seem to multiply quickly.
Very, very cool contest. And what a motivation, too! :o) I’ll start my noggin percolating on this one, and saving all of the myriad catalogs that have appeared . . .
Amy…all your pattern links on the “free patterns” page are broken!
sue
Great idea! I would love to participate… but my end of college semester projects are in the way. Good luck to all who participate, can’t wait to see what’s made.
I was referred to your contest by a friend who loves your blog! She was reading my blog, and I just posted about making a cool Christmas tree using old magazines that are headed to the trash. The link for the tutorial, written by a little kid of all things crazy, is included in the post. I am addicted to these Christmas trees. I could make 100 of them! Oh, and I would totally gift them. I have everyone in my office making them too. Imagine a bunch of them on a mantle! Sorry for the blathering – I am just THAT excited!! Here’s the link – http://balkanstyle.blogspot.com/2008/11/sunday-song-of-sweets.html
ENJOY!!
I am a long time collector of all kinds of magazines. They are stacked up in more piles than I wish to admit. When my daughter was growing up we would frequently make magazine envelops. If you take a small envelop apart and trace around it on cardboard you have the template. Find a page that is interesting and trace around the template for your envelop and cut out. Follow the folds on your original envelop. Use a small amount of glue to seal at the bottom sides. When you want to use it to mail place a label on the front for a name and address and in the corner for a return address. Great for your Christmas cards or your Bills. Magazine bowls are another interesting and useful thing to do. Go to make:blog:Howto-magazineBowls Blog.makezinecom/archive/2006. There is also a tutorial at crafter.org. Of course if you do not feel crafty you can always use the pages of them for wrapping paper. Have fun.
Well, we did it. :o) I set it up and turned the kids loose, covering small boxes in catalog clippings to be used as gift boxes. You can check it out here:
http://thepassionatemind.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-catalog-creativity.html
My photographs aren’t as pretty as the ones in the tutorial Nadine linked to, but we sure had fun, and made some neat-o boxes to put under the tree. :o)
Thanks for the contest, Amy. It feels good to make use of the excess all around, doesn’t it?