>Home>Crafts>Patterns>Magazine Page Boxes

Magazine Page Boxes

Recycle Magazines into Colorful Boxes

Recycle colorful magazines into handy desktop containers.

This has got to be one of the most economical craft projects of all times - and it’s green!

Children can make these colorful containers if you precut the paper strips for them (or supervise their use of the paper cutter) and don’t mind glue on their hands!

These are terrific for holding all sorts of things.

Fill with pencils and you have a perfect teacher gift.

Make various sizes and use them to organize your (or your child’s) desktop with pizzazz.

Magazine Page Box Materials

• A colorful magazine or catalog such as a seed catalog or fashion magazine
• Paper cutter
• Glue stick
• Aleene’s Clear Gel Tacky Glue
• Glad Press’n Seal® wrap to protect your work surface and for easy release of your project after gluing
• Krylon Crystal Clear Spray

How to Assemble a Rectangular Shape Box

Tear colorful pages out of a magazine or catalog.

Cut strips from each page measuring 7 ¼" x 4 ¾" and 7 ¼" x 3".

In a perfect world, the rectangular box would require 42 long and 34 short strips. But since this is not a perfect world, it would be difficult for any human to roll all the strips to exactly the same diameter. LOL.

So you can expect some adjustments to be needed. The box pictured used 42 long strips and 40 short.

I apparently rolled the short strips a bit tighter and thus needed extras on the short sides. The goal is simply to have a level top, so add extra strips if needed to make it so.

Cover your work surface with the Glad Press’n Seal®. The project will lift off much more easily.

Using a glue stick, run a line of glue across one short end of each strip and starting at the other end roll each strip into a fairly tight tube.

Be sure you like the colors showing on the outside before rolling each tube. Try to keep them all about the same diameter.

The example uses approximately ¼-inch diameter tubes.

Form a rectangle of tubes as shown above. Use tacky glue to glue the four corners together.

Glue approximately eight more long strips into the center to form the base. Let dry an hour before proceeding.

Gently lift the base off the work surface and place it in another clean area of the Press’n Seal. Again, this will allow it to be lifted more easily later.

To start the sides, glue a short tube atop a short tube of the base. Then glue a long tube atop an adjoining long tube; another short tube and finally a long one to close the rectangle of level 2 (with the base being level 1).

Place an extra dab of glue where each corner meets. Continue adding levels in this fashion until you have 17 levels (including the base).

Let dry several hours.

Spray with a glossy varnish for extra durability and protection from moisture.

Instructions for the Square Box

To make the square box, use only short tubes and follow the same instructions building the box as high as you like.

Other Sizes

Of course you can create various other shapes and sizes to suit your needs. The only limitations are the paper size you use and the required durability of the finished box (given that it is made of paper, albeit strengthened by the rolled tubes).

  | Top | Patterns | Crafts | Home |