In this post I revealed my major magazine-hoarding problem. In a recent attempt to purge (and recycle) some of the many piles of magazines in my house, I found myself perusing the pages during an unusual minute of free time. I came across this beautiful grid of “Madison-related” images from my Madison Magazine and immediately ripped it out.
I loved the colors, the grid, pretty much everything about it. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it but I just loved the picture so much I knew I needed to save it for something. A few days later I was searching for something in our basement when I came across this old piece of art that used to hang in our old house.
While it isn’t terrible, I never rehung it in our new house because I don’t really love it and contemplated donating it.  Then a lightbulb went off – I would repurpose this ready-made piece of art into a new piece of art using my torn magazine page.
Quick disclaimer. I am no pro when it comes to DIY projects. Just a mom that sometimes gets a little bored in the daily grind and likes to get her craft on. Everything I do is pretty simple and uses only basic supplies that I usually have laying around the house. Â
Supplies:Â
- Old piece of art (could be an old picture, a canvas, or an unused picture frame)
- Inspiration piece (mine was a clipping from a magazine but it could be from a book, an old card, etc.)
- Paint brush
- Chalkboard paint
- Chalk
- Mod Podge
Steps:
1). After I had my inspiration magazine piece (my Madison-related images from the Madison Magazine), I covered my old art work with two coats of chalkboard paint. Chalkboard paint is super easy to use and although the first coat doesn’t usually look great, the second one does the trick every time. You can really use any kind of paint I just really like chalkboard paint as it covers almost any kind of surface very easily.
2) After my second coat of chalkboard paint dried, I got to work on mod podging my magazine clipping down. You really don’t need a lot of mod podge to cover the surface. I applied the mod podge to the back of the clipping and then when it dried to the front. Because the magazine page was very thin it kind of crinkled up a bit from the mod podge but I didn’t mind. I just kept trying to smooth it down while it was drying. I applied about two coats over top of the clipping to keep it in place and to give it a matte effect.
3) After the mod podge dried, my board was looking good but lacking a little something. So I decided to use chalk to write “Madison” on the top of the board and do a more decorative design on the bottom. I found another page in the magazine that had the size lettering I needed for “Madison” on it. I flipped it over and smeared chalk all over the back of it where the letters were. I then flipped it over and placed it on my art where I wanted the letters to be. I used a pen to write over the letters on my board. Another easy way to do this is just finding a font you like in Word and printing out your lettering. Just flip your paper over and apply the chalk to the back of that and then stencil over your letters to transfer the letters to your chalkboard.
When I removed this piece from my board after outlining the letters here is what it looked like:
I then just filled in using my chalk. If I got a little sloppy with my chalk I used a went paint brush for touch up. It isn’t perfect but I am happy with it.
I applied the same process with the decorative design on the bottom.
Here is the final product. I am pretty happy with my recycled art using a random page from a magazine. The hardware is already on the back of the frame so it is ready to hang.
And speaking of using magazine clippings, I also found this adorable picture of colored pencils in a magazine that I thought would look great near my son’s art station. I simply cut it out, found an old mat and frame that was in the basement and plopped the picture in.
Slowly but surely I will work away at my magazine piles!
Have you ever recycled un-used art before? We would love to hear about it.
Great idea!