Category: Paper

Magazine Plant Stand

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The concept is similar to cardboard furniture. It’s amazing how sturdy the paper can be when it involves multiple layers. We were thinking a single magazine could work as a wall shelf…let me know if anyone tries it or if you have any other uses!

What You Need

Materials
Old magazines. That’s it!

Instructions

1 Pull out any subscription cards from inside the magazine. (And subscribe if you like it—it’s so much cheaper than buying off the newsstand!)
2 Flip open the magazines and leave the cover out to the left. Thumb through (about) ten pages, then fold them in half towards you, tucking the page ends back towards the binding. The crease should be on the right side, and the loose ends should be on the top.
3 Repeat for the entire magazine, including the back cover. (It’s okay to vary the number of pages a little, so don’t worry about counting them.)
4 Fold the cover to the right, over the first crease, and tuck it in towards the binding to secure the folded pages. You’ll have a semi-circle fan shape.
5 Repeat for any other magazines. Place them back to back, with the flat sides together. If you’re stacking two on top of each other, rotate the second layer a few degrees so that they stack like bricks, and not directly on top of each other. This will make them more stable.

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Sky Lanterns

After watching the movie “Tangled” and seeing some cool fireworks, I’m inspired to provide the instructions to make Sky Lanterns. After doing some research, I’ve found some debate as to how ecologically safe and fire safe they are or are not. Having covered that– here are some instructions.

Things You’ll Need

2 yards of tissue paper
Scissors
Elmer’s glue
Universal Paper Shield Flame Retardant Spray
String
4 dowels of 3/32-by-18-inch balsa wood
Candle wick
2 fishing hooks
Hot glue gun
Rubbing alcohol
Long match

1
Cut out two 2-foot-wide and 3-foot tall rectangles from tissue paper. Spray these with flame retardant on each side and allow them to dry. Cut the upper right and left corners of each tissue paper sheet. Brush on a thin coat of Elmer’s glue on the top, left and right side edges of each piece of tissue paper. Do not glue the bottom edge. Press these pieces together and allow them to dry.

2
Hot-glue two fishing hooks together so that the hooks are upside down and pointing out. Wrap a candle wick string around the fishing hooks to form a ball.

3
Soak two 3/32-by-18-inch balsa wood dowels in a bucket of water for 24 hours. This will make them extremely pliable. Bend these two dowels into a circle and tie them together. Lay two dowels across this hoop so that the dowels intersect the hoop vertically and horizontally. You can also purchase pre-made circular dowel wood from a craft store.

4
Cut four lengths of string into 6-inch segments and spray with flame retardant. Tie all four of these strings to the hoop. Tape the tips of the string inside the tissue paper bag.

5
Soak the ball of wick in alcohol. Have a friend hold the bag up and slightly open as you place the wick ball on the hoop frame. Carefully light the wick ball with a long match. Allow the bag to begin to inflate with hot air before letting go.

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also see: http://blog.skylighter.com/fireworks/2008/11/how-to-make-chinese-sky-lanterns.html

Iris Folding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Iris Folding is an easy and pretty way to use up all those scraps of colored paper (maybe you have left overs from scrapbooking). You start with a pattern and end up with a nice picture worthy of framing or giving as a nice gift in card form. Google ‘Iris Folding’ or click here for free patterns and instructions.