Looking for a fun upcycled magazine craft to try? This one is cute, colorful, and quick, and you feel like relaxing at the beach when you are done! Keep reading…
About a year ago, my husband applied for a credit card. I guess along with this card, he got a few bonus magazine subscriptions that he forgot about. I didn’t know where these mystery magazines kept coming from until I asked him about them one day, and then he all of a sudden remembered!
Now, I love magazines, and he picked out some good ones for me….Women’s Health, Shape, and Departures, to name a few. But after a year, the magazines have just started piling up! I truly did intend to read them, but between homeschooling, raising 4 kids, working toward self-sustaining and homesteading, and being self-employed, I never get around to it. Life just happens!
These are perfectly beautiful, informational, functional magazines, so I hated to throw them out. One day, an unexpected streak of creativity hit me. After gathering a few thoughts (and some Google inspiration), I decided to turn these magazines into some fun art!
My daughter and I had recently learned about how palm trees are designed to withstand hurricanes, so I thought we would incorporate a palm tree design into our upcycled magazine craft.
Besides, it was somewhat of an inside joke that I was using Departures magazine to make the palm tree. Anyone with 4 young kids knows that you aren’t departing anywhere exotic for a while….;-)
So, onto the craft:
Here are the materials you will need:
- Old magazines
- Scissors
- Elmer’s glue
- Glue stick
- Piece of cardboard (I used an upcycled cereal box)
- Wooden stick (I used a bamboo skewer)
- Silhouette of palm tree (or figure of choice)
- Hanging Wooden board or hook (optional)
- Glue gun (optional)
I found a silhouette of a palm tree online (Pixabay is one of my favorite places to look.) I printed it and cut it out with my scissors.
After cutting out the palm tree from the paper, I traced it on to the piece of cardboard and cut it out. I could have saved myself a step by cutting the palm tree out with my Cricut on the cardboard, but my kids were taking up all my attention and wouldn’t let me do anything with technology at the moment.
Here’s my palm tree silhouette on cardboard. The Lucky Charms is my husband’s favorite. 😉
Next, I needed to make my magazine rolls. To do this, tear colorful pages carefully out of your upcycled magazine. I used about 14 – 16 pages. Cut any rough edges off, and then cut the pages in half horizontally (hamburger style, for all those elementary teachers out there!).
Place a skewer at a corner and begin tightly rolling toward the other corner. Finish your roll with some glue from your glue stick about the last 2 inches out.
Make lots of these! This is one of the most time-consuming parts of the project, but it goes by quicker than you might think. The trick is to try to roll the sticks uniformly so that they lay parallel on your project.
Now it’s time to start gluing the sticks on the palm tree. Pick out a rolled stick and place it over the palm tree. Mark each end, the best you can, to match the shape. Then, cut the rolled stick on your marks and glue the piece in place with the Elmer’s (white) glue.
Continue this process until you finish the palm tree! Take your time, paying attention to keep your sticks as parallel as possible. Keep the scrap pieces as you can use those for smaller parts in the figure.
As you cut rolls, they may come unrolled if they weren’t glued underneath. Simply glue them back together with your glue stick before continuing.
All done!
I chose to hot glue mine to a small wooden board I had. If you don’t have a board, you can glue a picture hanger on the back of your palm tree and hang it on the wall.
So before you throw away all those magazines, think about what you can do with them (you should check out my upcycled magazine summer flower wreath for another fun craft idea). This craft was so fun, simple, inexpensive, and green! I love when we can find another use for something that would otherwise go to the recycling center, and it turned out so cute!
What will you make out of your old magazines? I’d love to see some pictures of your finished pieces! Thanks for reading and sharing!