how-to: use your pretty magazines to make a festive ball garland

Posted on 06. Nov, 2011 by in craft, make it pretty, projects

When I am looking for inspiration for a project, I start by looking around my office or house for what I have too much of. What am I preparing to throw out that I could use in a different way? And like many of you, I’m sure, my eye always falls on the gigantic pile of magazines atop nearly every surface in my office. We all love to keep magazines–the layouts, the colors, the ideas and inspiration–even the pretty advertisements are inevitably ripped from their glued spines and pinned to our bulletin boards. But even the most ardent magazine hoarders (I’m looking at you, Mom!) have to clean house once in a while and pick some mags to let go of. Save your favorite pages and give them new life by making my new magazine ball garland.

Materials needed:

  • Sewing machine
  • A magazine or two–I used one with lots of beautiful, brightly-colored pages
  • Scissors

Below I’ve outlined all of the steps in photos–it’s quite intuitive and easy to make your own. Luckily, this isn’t a project that must be done perfectly to be successful!

This is a pretty versatile tutorial–you can use the same technique to make tiny garlands to embellish gifts, big color-coordinated garlands to wrap around your Christmas tree, or just do what I did and make something to liven up your workspace. You don’t have to use just magazines for this project either–here are some other ideas:

  • Use newspaper for a shabby black and white color scheme
  • Fringe the sides of the circles after sewing them–fan them out and fluff the fringe!
  • Cut the paper into different shapes–hearts, squares, flowers…
  • Vary the sizes of the circles from stack to stack as you sew
  • Make this project with other meaningful materials–cut big circles out of old greeting cards, saving the signatures of your loved ones. Reuse old school papers from your college years or artwork from a particularly prolific child in your life.

Make it project and upload your photos to our Princess Lasertron Projects group on Flickr. And if you like this project, you will also love the recycled magazine bouquet featured in the premier issue of Rock N Roll Bride’s new magazine. (Those flowers are next on my list to make and I will definitely share how they turn out!)

My outfit: Dress: Ann Taylor Loft // Jacket: Merona // Tights: Hue // Necklace: Erickson Beamon for Target


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26 Responses to “how-to: use your pretty magazines to make a festive ball garland”

  1. Ula’s Favorites – Christmas Edition | Broccoli Addict

    25. Nov, 2011
    8:51 am

    [...] have a ton of magazines that I just do not have the heart to throw out, so this garland seems like the perfect project for [...]

    Reply to this comment

  2. Sarah Sue

    17. Nov, 2011
    4:26 pm

    I need a sewing machine… Hope Santa pulls through

    Reply to this comment

  3. Tuesdays with inspiration « post 2am

    15. Nov, 2011
    2:15 pm

    [...] I thought this was lovely-A magazine garland. Found it here [...]

    Reply to this comment

  4. Nan

    11. Nov, 2011
    10:21 am

    Thank you for sharing this great and fun tutorial.

    Reply to this comment

  5. Susanna

    11. Nov, 2011
    10:02 am

    This looks like a great project! But I’m not entirely clear on what happens in between each of the magazine-balls… How are they attached to each other? Do you just unwind extra thread and twist it?

    Reply to this comment

  6. How-To: Magazine Ball Garland | My Blog

    11. Nov, 2011
    7:55 am

    [...] flattering many a many suddenly overwhelming blog name ever, common this educational for creation paper round garland with repository [...]

    Reply to this comment

  7. How-To: Magazine Ball Garland | make handmade, crochet, craft

    10. Nov, 2011
    3:29 pm

    [...] with pretty much the most unexpectedly awesome blog name ever, shared this tutorial for making paper ball garland with magazine [...]

    Reply to this comment

  8. how-to: use your pretty magazines to make a festive ball garland ›› Princess Lasertron | phowi

    10. Nov, 2011
    12:52 pm

    [...] var addthis_product = 'wpp-261'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; via http://princesslasertron.com/2011/11/papergarland/ faved by klw LOVE IT! 0 COMMENT 0 10 Nov, 2011 GMT -8 0 views NEWER [...]

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  9. Magazine Garland | Marla's Art Page Blog

    10. Nov, 2011
    12:51 pm

    [...] cut from a magazine and sewn together make a beautiful garland.  Check it out on Princess Lasertron.  Great pictorial. Rate this: Like this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]

    Reply to this comment

  10. Zim

    10. Nov, 2011
    12:45 pm

    This is awesome…something I’d definitely love to try out ASAP!! Only that I’ll get my mom to sew it manually since we don’t have a sewing machine!! :D

    Reply to this comment

  11. spookyzo

    10. Nov, 2011
    12:35 pm

    brilliant idea- gorgeous pictures… what is the white contraption on the shelf? A camera? I am intrigued!

    Reply to this comment

  12. Bonney

    10. Nov, 2011
    11:48 am

    How many layer are sewn together? Very cute!!

    Reply to this comment

  13. Heidi

    10. Nov, 2011
    11:15 am

    Oh My goodness!! I have a sewing machine! I have a HUGE pile of magazines and newspapers! I can do this!!!

    Reply to this comment

  14. Robin

    10. Nov, 2011
    10:18 am

    I would never have thought of sewing magazines. It looks amazing. I would love it if you linked it up over at The T-shirt Diaries Upcycling Linky party: http://tinyurl.com/upcycled70

    Reply to this comment

  15. Rock n Roll Bride · Thursday Treats – 10th November 2011 + New Vivienne Westwood/Melissa Shoes Available for Pre-Order

    10. Nov, 2011
    9:14 am

    [...] is a gazillion percent different than from your direct competitors ♥ A Georgia Elopement ♥ how-to: use your pretty magazines to make a festive ball garland ♥ Industrial Boston wedding ♥ Colourful estate wedding ♥ Julian and Amy’s Rock And Roll [...]

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  16. Diane kopke

    07. Nov, 2011
    5:59 am

    I made pinwheels out of old maps for my stores windows last summer. I am going to do this project using maps. Thanks ao much!

    Reply to this comment

    • Princess Lasertron

      10. Nov, 2011
      3:29 pm

      oh I LOVE that idea! maps would be awesome. we have a lot of maps and globes that I’m bringing into camp so that might be a good idea for me too.

      Reply to this comment

  17. jess@birdhouse

    06. Nov, 2011
    3:13 pm

    Those are pretty darn cute.

    Reply to this comment

  18. ellene

    06. Nov, 2011
    1:40 pm

    love this! I’m a well known magazine hoarder and people donate them to my art room, which just feeds my addiction!!!

    Reply to this comment

  19. Courtney Gill Zurcher

    06. Nov, 2011
    1:29 pm

    Ah I love this! Too bad through out my magazines!

    Reply to this comment

  20. Elizabeth

    06. Nov, 2011
    5:34 am

    Ooooo! Inspired to FINALLY set up my sewing machine! After the wedding, of course…one week away. Eeeeek!

    Reply to this comment

  21. kat - rocknrollbride

    06. Nov, 2011
    4:03 am

    omg this is so cute! would be a perfect xmas decoration

    Reply to this comment

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