Recycled Magazine Page Ornaments

These holiday ornaments use almost no supplies and the main material is even recycled! You can make lots of these festive ornaments in different shapes and sizes to adorn your tree, a wreath, or even to give as gifts or package ties. Easy, almost free, and quick to make, these fun recycled magazine page ornaments will lend homespun flair to any holiday decor.

Materials:

• Magazine pages, from magazines you’re done reading and ready to throw out. The more colorful the pages, the more colorful the ornaments.
• Paper cutter. Alternately, a ruler, pen and scissors
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Bone folder, optional
• Twine, thin ribbon or metal ornament hooks, for hangers

Instructions:

Using your paper cutter or ruler, pen and scissors, cut your magazine pages lengthwise in 2” strips. The number of strips you need depends on the style of ornament you’re making. The tree took 17 strips, the linear ornament took 15. You should be able to get 4 strips out of each page.

2. Take a strip of paper and fold it in half lengthwise. Open it out flat again and fold each edge into the middle fold, taking care not to overlap. Fold each edge in again to the middle fold, again taking care not to overlap. Finally, fold in half lengthwise, sandwiching the folded paper together. A bone folder can be helpful to make your folds crisp, but you can also just use a ruler or a fingernail.

3. Repeat with the rest of your strips. Folded strips will unfold slightly when released, but that’s okay.

4. Once all your strips are folded, heat your glue gun.

5. Take a strip and roll it up by first folding a small amount of one end over, and continuing to fold until you’re wrapping the rest of the strip around and forming a circle. Once you have a circle, place a small dot of hot glue under the loose end to secure. Repeat with the remaining strips.

6. Once all your strips are rolled and glued, glue the circles together in the desired pattern. Attach a loop of twine or ribbon to the back or affix a wire ornament hanger, and you’ve got yourself a handmade ornament!

Note: For the linear ornament, the center circle took 3 strips and the next 4 circles took 2 strips each. Once you’ve rolled and glued one strip, glue the end of another strip right next to the end of the first strip and continue wrapping it around to make a larger circle.