How To Make Magazine Holders

Read all of the steps before starting.

 Step 1: Project Preparation

Read through the project and gather the materials needed for creating magazine holders from recycled cereal boxes. If you are doing this craft with a group, precutting the boxes and painting them white will make the craft go faster.

Tip: Cereal boxes and magazines come in a variety of sizes. Before starting the project, be sure your cereal box will hold the magazines or books you plan to store in them. Also check the height of your bookshelf—cut the box shorter, if needed.

Step 2: Cut Cereal Box

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Cut the top flaps off of the empty cereal box. Use pencil and ruler to draw a line from the middle of the box’s top to one side at a 45-degree angle, straight across the side, and up the back at the same angle. Cut on this line.

Step 3: Sand Box

Lightly sand the outside of the cereal box to dull the shiny coating. The paint will adhere to the box better if it is sanded first.

Step 4: Paint Box

Spray the box with white paint, or apply white paint with a sponge brush. Let paint dry. Two or more coats may be needed to over the bright printing on most cereal boxes.

Step 5: Decorate Box

The box is now like a blank canvas ready for your creative ideas. Paint the box with sponges and stencils or use any decorative technique you know to create a unique box.

To decorate a box like the example magazine holder, cut a small square sponge stamp from an ordinary kitchen sponge and sponge stamp a border of checks in one or two colors of green. Follow the instructions in the Sponge Stamps and Art project. Next, stencil in greens and purples using an iris stencil on the  box's sides and ends following the Stenciling Basics instructions in the Stenciled Greeting Card tutorial.

Tip: Almost any decorating technique can be used on these boxes. You might cover a box in fabric that matches your decor. Or paint a scene across several boxes with a circus, Old West, or ocean theme. How about gluing pictures cut from old magazines to the box and then applying several coats of a decoupage sealer? Or just paint the box a solid color and let the kid’s paint, stamp, and glue their own creations.