Recycled magazine coasters | How About Orange

June 23, 2009

Recycled magazine coasters

My latest after-dinner-while-watching-TV project: woven coasters made from magazine pages. To make a coaster like the green one above:

1. Tear out 6 magazine pages. Cut off the ragged edge on each, then cut each page in half lengthwise. I stacked them and cut them all at once with an X-acto knife and ruler. (To make a coaster with a finer weave, cut each of the half-page strips in half lengthwise again. And note that weaving will take you twice as long!)


2. Fold each strip in half lengthwise. Then fold the resulting piece in thirds, folding the cut edges inward first so they're hidden inside. Now you have a long, thick strip. Fold it in half at the center. See steps pictured above. Repeat with each magazine sheet.

3. To start weaving, interlock two strips. This is the bottom left corner of your coaster.

4. Add another strip that wraps around the outside of the horizontal bottom strip.

5. Continue weaving. Some strips will wrap around the outside of the coaster when you start them; some will begin sandwiched between two existing strips. See above. Keep adding to your coaster one strip at a time, making sure to push the papers tightly together. Flip your coaster over and check the back frequently to make sure nothing's going haywire back there!

6. When the coaster has 6 horizontal and 6 vertical strips, it's time to finish the edges. Strips that emerge on the outsides of the "coaster sandwich" need to be secured. Trim off one end of the strip so it's even with the edge of the coaster. Bring the other end around the edge of the coaster and tuck it under the closest weave to hide the raw ends. You should have just enough length to reach.

7. Strips that emerge from the inside of the sandwich can simply be cut off. If you want to seal your coaster with something, you could try some spray acrylic sealer and see what happens. Personally, I don't care if mine gets a little wrinkly from being wet. Happy weaving.

96 comments:

Kate said...

I love this idea! Thanks for sharing!

Grandma G said...

Gee, you're sure busy getting rid of old 'stuff' lately... newspapers, magazines. What's the matter, doesn't your garbage man come anymore? ;-)

Cute coasters, BTW.

Love,
Mum

Amanda @RusticRemnants said...

I love these. I'm always needing ideas for things to do with my neice and we have tons of magazines. Awesome!

Kelley said...

Sweet, I've been looking for a way to make cheap, easy coasters. Thanks for the idea!

elizabeth Langgle: said...

love these. i make circular ones but i have never tried the woven ones. now, i definitely will :)

melissa deakin said...

such a cool idea.
love this!
you are so creative.
thanks so much for sharing!

Jennwith4 said...

I've made myself a couple of these. My girls love em.

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

These are great, I love in-front-of-the-tv projects! Thanks tons, I'll be linking.

Meg said...

Great idea! I think I might make some of these tomorrow night at my craft gathering!

Lauren The Artist said...

That is a cool idea. I have a zillion magazines... who knows why I save them???

Pascallle said...

a Very Good Idea !

Laura Kay said...

Great idea & technique. This feels like an old Girl Scouts project. I love what Grandma G had to say!!!

Anonymous said...

This is just the sort of craft I've been looking for. Trying hard to save moolah for a house, so trying to not spend $ on craft items. But that leaves me a little bored! I certainly have lots of magazines hanging around!

Gypsy said...

cool idea! You can probably seal them too with modge podge :)

suz said...

Very cool!

Very Shannon said...

What a great idea! I love these! I couldn't resist adding these to our link luv roundup, come take a peek:
http://www.luvinthemommyhood.com/2009/06/link-luv-roundup_24.html
Thanks for sharing :)

Karen said...

What a great idea. They kind of remind me of the paper chains I used to make out of gum wrappers;)

Heavenly Hummingbird said...

great idea!!!

KMR said...

This looks like so much fun! I am definitely going to try this when I get home tonight!

NightAngelRose said...

I tried it right away and they turned out great! Thanx!

caligirl said...

Fabulous!

caligirl said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
deanna said...

Speaking of gum-wrapper-paper-chains. Does anyone remember how or have a link for a tutorial? I have thought of those lately and cannot remember how to make them ...

kathi said...

Looks like fun! I knew there was a reason I have this huge stack of magazines! I think I'll make some for the girls at work.

House movers Melbourne said...

very creative..

alaya said...

i think i tried to make this once a long time ago.
i'll try again sometimes.
thanks for the idea :)

Tegan | Celebrate Twelve13 said...

Way too cute! And I love that these can be a while-watching-TV project. :)

fizzyfeline said...

love love love this idea, going to try tonight during TV hours. thanks again, for sharing!

Anonymous said...

This is great! I'm definitely going to give it a try! :)

elena said...

These are SOOOO groovy!

featherbed said...

what a fun project!! Now if I could quit looking at fun projects on here, I could DO one!! hehe

Coffeebean's Dailies said...

Hi! I made one!!! I am soooo excited and I can't wait to get with it and make more and, and, and make your basket!!! Thank you so much and today is my birthday! You can see my coaster on my blog at:

www.coffeebeansdailies.blogspot.com

Thanks again!! You rock!

Shalini said...

What fun! I'll be making these and the baskets too!

Sarah said...

I saw these and just had to make one! Posted a pic on my blog. These are just too cute!

Sarah
yarnbox.blogspot.com

becky said...

and when they get really yucky, you can recycle them! i blogged about this. thanks for sharing!

Helloilmare said...

woohoooww i love this idea! keep up the great work ;)

Jessica Coates said...

I'm making this TODAY! love it!

Coertze Peters said...

it took me a while to figure this out - and my first one turned out a little skew - but I think it is an excellent idea! Thanks!

Alpana said...

very cool! my son just got a hat from plastic grocery bags made by our local grandma.

Unknown said...

Great idea I can now get my daughter off cutting my coffee filters up for snowflakes and get her on my magazines.

Recycled Candy Wrapper Purse said...

Oh wow! What a cool idea. I really like the green one. I bet you could do something really cool with color fades or checker board it with solid colors and pictures of flowers or something like that. Probably wouldn't be too hard, right? :-)

Kate said...

What a great tutorial! Thank you!

Mon said...

Thank you for sharing the idea with us dear <3
My version of your coasters http://catinthejar.blogspot.com/2009/09/coaster-or-notepad.html

Anonymous said...

I love making these in my spare time. My brother moved into an apartment instead of a dorm this year, and I made a set of six for him and his friends as "apartment warming" gifts.

Right now I'm making a coaster with the thinner strips. Let me tell you, I will never attempt it again.

Thanks for the wonderful idea!

Komal said...

Thanks for sharing! I'm passing along the word!

Christine said...

Hi,

I am an Editor with FaveCrafts.com. I think these coasters recycled from magazines are very creative. I've recently come across some crafts made from old boardgames. If you'd like to find out more you can read about it at http://www.favecraftsblog.com/board-games-used-for-crafts/

Enjoy!

Christine
www.FaveCrafts.com
www.FaveCraftsBlog.com

giggles said...

What a great idea !! I know its just 6-8 sheets of paper, but still its some level of recycling. Thanks.. and please keep coming up with more of such cool ideas.

Unknown said...

somebody is getting these for Christmas!

Ida said...

I just made one and I love it! Thanks so much for the inspiration.

Deedra said...

These are great!! Fun stuff. I think I'll be making some!

kristy said...

i made these for a Christmas gift, but i triple painted it with acrylic paint and sprayed it with gloss sealer.
you couldn't even tell they were paper!
thanks for the idea :)

concretenprimroses said...

I like Kristy's idea too.
Anyway I goofed mine up and it turned out to be something else! I know what I did wrong so I'll try again, but here's a link to how my first one turned out.
Kathy
http://concretenprimroses.blogspot.com/2010/01/when-you-make-lemon.html

Monica said...

Nice stuff. Thanks for that.
Warm regards from Brazil.

Quilting Queen said...

What a great idea..I hate to throw out old magazines..this way I can convince myself I am contributing to the "go green" movement..thanks for sharing..

caro said...

HI I'm from argentina, I did your coasters and I found it really amazing , it's a great idea , funny and creative !! Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

thanks for the idea, will get to it right away, I have been looking for a good craft to do and thanks to you I've just found it!

recycled paper printing said...

Great idea! you are so creative person. I love this post! Thank you for sharing these.

elena said...

I just made a version of these...as a valentine. Make that 3 valentines..like the coasters, they are a bit addictive! http://elenabella.blogspot.com/2010/02/something-to-make-woven-paper.html

clearmist said...

Hi there! I just spent 2 hours making one coaster and I am so proud of myself. It looks so damn cute! I'm not very good with art but this looked so easy I had to try it. Thank you so much for sharing!

Polly said...

Nice! I like the Valentine variation, too.

Kim said...

This is a great idea; I made one to send to my brother in a birthday card.

http://aisforakari.blogspot.com/2010/03/recycled-magazine-coaster.html

Thanks Jessica!

ILikePaperCutting said...

this is beautiful and green idea

Michelle said...

i love these kinds of crafts . They're really nice to look at.

waywardmedic said...

Just made 5 of these last night. They are addictive to make. Thank you for the tutorial.

Silvia Doomra said...

Amazing!!! Thanks for the great tip.. Love it.. :)

Lynnie said...

Oh, my gosh! Do you know how many magazines I have. Now I have something I can do with the pages I'm not interested in! Thanks think I'll try this!

Katja Nina said...

Love the idea!

TweeMeisjes said...

Funny. I saw somewhere in a magazine how to make a basket out of them: http://tweemeisjesindestad.blogspot.com/2010/02/24-twee-maal-zelfgemaakt.html

Mary Alford - The Sustainable Design Group said...

These are like the "sit upons" we used to make out of newspaper when I was a girl scout forty years ago. Darn I am old. Anyway, do you have any idea of the dimensions needed to make a placemat or a a charger instead? I am thinking I would like to try that with full magazine sized pages.

Really great idea!!!

Anonymous said...

Was so bored and feeling crafty so I made me a coaster!

Emily said...

love this super sustainable (and cute!) idea. :-)

Alia said...

Hi, I tried this...This is cool! Do you mind if I share this on my blog? I'll link it to ur blog of course!

http://aliascreativelife.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Yours turned out so beautifully. I have been "crafting" for almost 50 years and I can't figure out how to keep the strips from slipping out. Maybe if I use Elmer's glue to keep them in place. It seems like no one else had the same problem so I'm puzzled what I did wrong.

eileensideways said...

the l.l.bean catalog would be perfect for this craft, preserving it indefinitely.

Anonymous said...

I decided to make a set of these for a birthday gift. I was making them during a long train ride, and the ticket manager on the train was impressed and really liked them!

lucy :) said...

ive really wanted to make this kind of stuff recently, i think it looks so cool!! :) thanks for sharing!

The Crafty Artisan said...

We love this one! We have posted a photo and a link to your tutorial on our page, the Crafty Artisan.

http://wiserunning.com/blog/2011/07/17/recycled-magazine-coasters-craft-tutorial/

Happy Crafting!

Vicki said...

just made a set of 4 of these. They turned out really cute!

Not sure if I was weaving as tightly or if my magazine pages weren't as long as yours, but doing 6x6 made a very big coaster with not enough leftover for me to fold the ends in. I scaled it down to 5x5 and they turned out perfectly.

I saw one other commenter had the same issue with getting the ends to stay in. Hope she sees this!

kray said...

Just tried this craft today. Did the folding at home and the weaving as a passenger in the car - easy to do while keeping up a conversation. I liked that these coasters let us reuse something from our home that would ordinarily have been thrown out. Takes a little time but they're super cute and low/no cost. Thanks for the instructions!

Amber said...

Love this! I need coasters! I'm going to make these tonight. :) Thanks!

Κάλη και Κατερίνα από Ανθομέλι said...

I made this but it iw difficult to the end. And also this is from paper. How can make it like plastic or sth? It will be wet!

Anonymous said...

Ammmaaazing idea ... thanks!

Anonymous said...

These are so cute. The remind me of the "sit upons" that we made in Girl Scouts back in the 60's. Thanks for sharing!
Diane

Sylvie la Grande Bretonne said...

great idea !! thanks for sharing !!
Sylvie

Rachel Sue said...

Such a great idea! I would love to feature this on Reduce, Reuse, Upcycle. Feel free to stop by and grab a featured button. Thanks!

First Grade said...

Made something similar years ago in Girl Scouts. They were much larger and made out of layers of newspaper. We called them "sit-a-pons". Worked great at camp, around the camp fire, etc. Thanks for jogging my memory. Love the coater idea. I'll try this as an Earth day " reuse" activity. Thanks

maro said...

First thing to do tomorrow. Great idea!

Anonymous said...

just made a few...i found that heavier duty magazine paper is easier to weave and doesn't slide as much. sealed mine with clear packing tape. thanks for the how to!

Jess, A Girl said...

Would mod podge be a good sealant?

Jessica Jones said...

Probably not; I've noticed that stuff can get a little sticky when it gets wet.

Anonymous said...

So I tried making the smaller weave coaster and it didn't turn out exactly like I hoped. The paper was difficult to weave toward the end and I found no good way to close and finish it. But it works fine for someone with no money to spend!

Anonymous said...

These are so cute, I can't wait to make them with my kids, but we might add some yarn to hang them with and use them as picture frames.

kstarBURI said...

this is great!!
i gotta try this:) thanks

Preeti Dubey said...

Hey there ! I simply loved these paper coasters. Made many of them, some for home and one for hubby's office. :) going to share this on my blog now. Thank you so much for such creative inspirations. :)

Pallavi Dalvi said...

Absolutely beautiful. I just tried and it looks amazing! Thanx !!

Anonymous said...

So beautiful! Can't wait to try it.