How to Make a Magazine Bowl and Coasters

If you have old magazines piling up and taking up your precious space, get rid of them in an Eco-friendly way! With extra magazines and some time, you can turn them into various sized bowls (for fruit, mail, miscellaneous small items), or coasters for your home. These items make aesthetically pleasing and useful decor for your living space. I originally got this idea from another paper craft I found on the Internet; I then modified it to my own taste. I made myself a bowl (which I used for fresh fruit and vegetables) and a set of 4 coasters.

I mainly used advertisements from the magazines, they’re normally much more colorful than individual articles. If you want a theme throughout the bowl, you can look for similar colors, or similar product ads. In most advertisements the model(s) are centered, so if you fold the paper in the right way, you can get mainly bodies, faces, eyes, or clothing to show throughout the sides of the bowl and/or coasters.

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Step 1: What You'll Need

To begin this project you will need:

- Magazines
- Hot Glue Gun
- Hard Surface to work on
- Mod Podge (or other water-based sealant)
- Paintbrush
- Newspapers or other surface to let the sealant dry on
- Water-Proof Sealer (I used a Clear Acrylic High Gloss Sealer for coasters)

The size bowl that I made used approximately 1 full magazine. Make sure you have plenty of magazines before you begin; you never know how big of a bowl you'll want to make! :)

lbland (author) says: Dec 23, 2011. 12:41 AM

At first it seems like the walls are going straight up, but when you're bringing the next piece of magazine around, make sure you're only going up half of the strip or less, so more is visible. The less you use of the 2nd strip, the faster the flare will show. Once the bowl is wider at the top, the flare shows more, I promise!
Let me know how it's working out!

lbland (author) says: Dec 23, 2011. 12:37 AM

I know it's been a very long time since anyone has commented on this, but I used both Mod Podge, and a spray sealant (both of which were found at Hobby Lobby) the spray sealant was found near the spray paint.

heddah says: Dec 22, 2011. 10:29 PM

I am having trouble with the depth. I followed the directions but he walls just go straight up not flared, what do you think I am doing wrong?

gia says: Aug 19, 2011. 9:09 AM

I've been experimenting with paper craft techniques recently, and I really like the one here. I've previously used a similar technique, but using paper strips of 1 inch or 1/2 inch wide. I like the result of how ibland's version works better, as the paper is more visible.
You can also use this but with even bigger paper strips. So even the whole page of the magazine at once. Bend it in two, apply a bit of glue (Elmer's or similar, water based white glue), bend it in two again, a bit of glue again etc until you will have about 1/4-1/3 inch wide, much rounder strip. That will work best when then glued together when it's still a bit wet, so the glue will also work for the structure. Then work the shape as in this i'ble, and finish with at least two layers of mod podge or other sealant. -- well, same technique in the base but again a bit different version and result. I'll get some pictures after I finish a bowl with my version of this technique.