Friday, July 11, 2008

Recycled Magazine Bowl


I saw this months and months ago on a craft blog that I can't even recall-- so I can't give them credit. I remember seeing it and thinking that it would be something very easy to do without really having to concentrate on it. It took a tad longer than I thought it would, but made for a nice activity to keep my hands busy while watching my soap operas! My daughter can't stop touching it and looking at it. I finally caved and gave it to her and her eyes lit up like sparklers. She's already loaded it up with girly goodies on her dresser.

What you need:



A magazine
Glue gun
Glue sticks
Time ;)

What you do:

1. Rip out each page of a magazine. You can use as many sheets as you'd like. For my particular bowl, I used an even hundred. However, you can make the bowl as big or as little as you'd like.

2. Fold each sheet from the magazine in half, lengthwise. Fold it again, 3 more times.... so you end up making four folds. The sheet will be about 1/2 an inch wide now.



3. Make a tight roll with one strip of paper.

4. Use a skinny line of glue to adhere a second strip to the first one, overlapping the ends about 1 inch, and wind that around.

5. Continue adding strips with glue until you have the base of your bowl to be about the size you want it to be.



6. Now start adding and winding your strips upwards.... just raise them up about 1/8 of an inch as you wind around. As you place the strips, be sure that the "raw" edge of the paper is on the inside when you glue and that the clean, folded edge is on the outside (see picture).



7. Continue adding strips.... moving up, until the bowl is as big as you'd like it to be.



8. I added a "lip" on the top of my bowl by winding about 4 or 5 layers at the same height at the top.

4 comments:

tims_mom said...

Very cool! You could even spray paint it, if you wanted, to match your current decor!

Nancy

patricia zapata said...

Your bowl turned out really well! I did a very similar one a while back. I love using recyclable materials too.

Anonymous said...

hi! I was wondering if you could give me a tip about this, I really want to make it. I have been trying unsuccessfully for a while to make the base, but I just can't seem to make the first roll! The paper warps and starts to unfold after rolling twice.
Thanks!!

Michele said...

Are you using magazine paper that is sort of shiny or is it more dry like newspaper? I used shiny tabloid magazine sheets-- I think it was US Weekly to be exact! Also, use a dot of hot glue to keep each sheet folded? I do recall folding them all and having them "loosen" a little bit before I was ready to use them, which resulted in me having to tighten up the folds as I did each row. Hopefully that will help! Good luck! :)
-Michele