Creative Uses for Old Magazines: 22 Fun Ways to Repurpose Them
Before you toss that stack of old magazines into the recycling bin, take a look at these creative uses for old magazines. Those glossy pages can be transformed into everything from beautiful home décor and unique gift wrap to fun crafts, educational activities, and practical household items.
Whether you're looking for an easy rainy-day project, a budget-friendly DIY, or simply want to reduce waste, there are plenty of clever ways to give old magazines a second life. Repurposing magazines is an inexpensive and eco-friendly way to get creative while keeping perfectly usable materials out of the landfill.
From simple family crafts to eye-catching décor ideas, these 22 creative uses for old magazines are sure to inspire your next upcycling project. You may never look at an old magazine the same way again!
Old Magazines for Organizing
Cupboard liners - Line above your kitchen cupboards with pages to protect from the dust, then remove and replace for easy dusting!
Boot trees - Roll up a couple of magazines, then put them inside your tall boots to keep them from falling over and wrecking the leather.
Use as package filler - Shred some magazines to make protective filler for packages.
Make a bowl - Make a cute bowl to hold random items such as keys, loose change or even hair accessories!
Create a box - What a cute way to hold special little trinkets or jewelry.
Old Magazines for Gift Giving
Make a gift bag - No more gift bags in your stash? Just turn some magazine pages into a recycled gift bag!
Gift wrap - Magazines could be a cheap and interesting way to wrap gifts for fun events!
Make a gift bow - Create some gift bows for all the gifts you'll be giving with this tutorial.
Recycled Magazine Flowers - I think one of these recycled magazine flowers would look great on a gift or on a card!
Old Magazines for Crafts/DIY
Crafts - Tear out magazine pages for collage and decoupage projects to help occupy the kids. These magazine embellished bobby pins are neat too!
Make beads - Turn magazine pages into unique paper beads using these instructions.
Homemade envelopes - Make some interesting envelopes out of magazine pages!
Create an end table - Create a unique end table by stacking a big pile of magazines and gluing them together or strapping them with a belt to stop them from toppling over.
Make coasters - I was just thinking I needed a coaster for where I put my coffee in the morning. These recycled coasters are lovely.
Make Christmas Trees - Why not make some holiday décor with some old magazines by using this tutorial for magazine Christmas trees?
Make a Butterfly Garland - This butterfly garland would be a beautiful way to dress up a child's room or playroom!
Make Paper Flowers - These magazine flowers look like so much fun to make!
Make a bracelet - Making bracelets out of old magazines would be fun for the kids to do.
Make 3D Wall Art - Who says you have to spend an arm and a leg decorating your wall? This tutorial for 3D wall art is fantastic.
DIY collage art - Here's another way to add style to your walls. Create collage art.
Create a wreath - I like this twist on the more traditional wreath.
Make wall art - This grizzly bear magazine strip silhouette art is amazing!
These creative uses for old magazines prove that there's no shortage of ways to give them a second life. Whether you try a simple craft, create unique home décor, or find a practical household use, repurposing magazines is a fun and budget-friendly way to reduce waste. Do you have a favorite way to reuse old magazines? Share your ideas in the comments, we'd love to hear your creative inspiration!
Donate them to your high school art department. They are great for resource photos
I love the idea on here! Just wandering if you can do the same with different paper? I would like to make a small bin for craft left overs as I am working on them!
Play bingo with them. Give them a magazine and a small list of objects to find have them tear out the pictures. Great for kids and older groups such as nursing homes,
Fantastic Idea 💡 Thank you!
Fun stuff, great ideas ! You could give your old magazines to your local Kindergarten/preschool together with the link to this site.
Wow ,I love that and am a gd artist
Don’t DESTROY your old magazines – give them to someone who will read, enjoy and treasure them. I collect car magazines and would welcome the gift of your old magazines. Others collect ‘Time’, ‘Sports Illustrated’, ‘People’, ‘Life’ etc. Just advertise them for free in Craigs List, Nextdoor or whatever and enjoy the feeling when you make someone’s day.
I couldn’t agree more! I love home magazines of any kind even old ones. I share mine at the public library leave one take one box for like minded folks.
Great idea! I get magazines I subscribe to and they often come with bonuses. I don’t want to toss them in the trash because it fills the landfill with stuff that won’t breakdown. I tried giving them to my doctor’s office and was told that due to COVID they weren’t allowed to take them. It was the same at the rehab center and hospital.
Greasers t ideas I’ve seen for my old magazines…
Thank you for helping me with my sustainable lifestyle.
Make an art journal!
They make good protection when gluing ,then remove page , new clean space to start again
A phone book also can be used the same way, and the paper is more absorbent when you spill glue. Plus, a phone book has a lot more pages than most magazines.
I do this all the time with magazines I’ve already taken out what I wanted after reading it. 😀
I used photos of flowers from old gardening magazines to line a chest of drawers. Decoupage. Arrange them in a visually pleasing way, glue them down and then modge podge or glue or varnish over them. I have also used an old book of music sheets to line an old suitcase that I painted and to line the drawers of an old White’s brand sewing cabinet I painted with chalk paint. Sometimes I just list my old magazines on Freecycle or Pay It Forward for someone else to enjoy once I have read them.
I’m a visual person. Does this blog have this pictures
Just tap on the highlighted words in each item
I would spread one out when my niece was little and she wanted to paint. Easy clean up.
this is a great collection of ideas all together! thanks!
I used old magazine pages to make colorful butterflies. Make sure there is lots of color though.
My mother made butterflies years ago. I still have them on my frig.
This is good one for making beads like my mom used to make wrapping and gluing the paper wrapped around small sticks. https://veganlovlie.com/how-to-make-paper-beads/
the article you linked to for the beads specifically states that magazines are not a good choice due to the glossy pages.
I have used magazine pages for bead making, to great success. I made a valence for my craft-room. It has just enough crystal and glass beads so it will catch the afternoon sunlight and to give it a little weight, which, helps it to hang straight on the fishing line I used to string the beads. it spans almost 8ft. So we’re talkin a lot of paper beads. I tried to upload a picture but have not been successful.
Wow, that sounds amazing!
….or just get them from the library.
Some great ideas…thanks for linking up to my blog post about creating gift bows out of old magazines!
My mom wrapped magazine pages around a pencil, glue the ends, the glued the magazine sticks onto a coffee can to make a unique garbage can.
I have been making envelopes from magazine pages. I also save some of the interesting recipes. I use some of the small pictures and glue them to make cards.
http://doitandhow.com/2011/09/17/magazine-art-bowl/
This is on a to do list!
donate them to local schools, the primary grades use them all the time for learning and crafts 🙂