I love to make my own cards and gift bags and I love magazines (I get a ton). When I want to make card for a certain holiday, let say Halloween, I just pull out my latest magazine, (they always arrive a month ahead of time) and look for cute pictures of pumpkins, black cats and other Halloween related pictures. If I can't find what I want, I pull out an older issue of the same month.
To make it even easier, go through each magazine as you get it and cut out any cute or interesting pictures. Save them in a file until you need them. You can use them for scrap booking, crafting, collages and more. If your kid likes a certain cartoon character, you could look for pics of it in your magazines and make a nice collage for them to hang on their wall. Other people might like a neat collage of their favorite things: dogs, cats, airplanes, etc. Almost any nice picture you find in your fav magazine can be framed and given as a gift or even keep it yourself.
At the moment I'm working on a corset made from magazine pictures. I still have left over pictures so I have no idea what to do with them. I'll figure something out. -Rachel
You can also cut out pictures from magazines, family pictures, or individual pictures of family members or what else you want to make. Take any color of construction paper and place pictures where you want to on the paper then use a glue stick to glue them to the paper. Then you take clear contact paper and cut it to the size of the construction paper. After this you peel the backing of one sheet of paper and put it on the back of project. Then take the top piece of contact paper and peel it and put it on top of project. You have just made a place mat for your family or self to use at the table or any where else..you may also make coasters by cutting a round circle of construction paper put whatever one it and then seal with clear contact paper, or let the kids make one of their own with any thing they want to. Great to put their hand print on it and the name and date.
I use old magazines, recycled cards, and wallpaper borders (cheap at $ store), and make books (5x7, 4.5x6.5 ,& 4.5.5x4.5) for filler items for Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes. The children in many countries love to look at pictures. I use cardboard for the covers (if cardboard has writing on it cover it with a card picture or gift paper) and two binder rings ( Office or School supply store) to hold them together. I use rubber cement glue and find stickers on sale for accents on the pages. I love to do these and know the children will get many laughs and lots of pleasure from them. I usually have 16 sheets which will yeild 32 pages of fun. Come December I will have the pleasure of putting 75 of them in boxes which are not full enough at the Atlanta processing center.
You can also make paper beads with them. My girls love to do this. cut long triangles either way, depending on how big a bead you want. You can free hand about 1/2 inch to an 1in. at wide end. then using either a straw(for younger girls or toothpick for older girls) starting at the wide end roll the paper to the point put a little glue about 1/2 down from point on side that will touch the bead and also on outside to seal it. then slide off straw or toothpick and let dry - make as many as you want. IF you want them shiny you can seal with clear nail polish. When you have all you want you can string them using other bead in between if you want you can even cut straws in to pieces and use as beads.
Old magazines and catalogs are also very good for helping pre schoolers with their cutting skills. They love looking for pretty things to cut out and paste onto construction paper.
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