What do you do with your old magazines? Even though you’ve finished reading them, they’re full of good articles, recipes, and how-to projects that you’re reluctant to get rid of. The problem is that magazines are hard to store. They are too floppy to stand up in a bookcase, and if you just put them in a pile somewhere, it’s hard to find the one you’re looking for.
There are a lot of commercial magazine boxes available, but if you have very many magazines, buying enough boxes can run into a lot of money. However, you can make your own magazine storage boxes that will cost you almost nothing.
To get started, you will need cardboard, shears or an x-acto knife, a roll of clear box tape, a 1”- 1 ½” brush, and a jar of Mod Podge. Mod Podge can be purchased in craft stores in both shiny finish and matte finish varieties. For our purposes you’ll probably want shiny, but it’s really up to you. You’ll need a mat or board you can cut on, as well as a ruler and a pencil. Plus you should have a magazine handy for fitting.
Lay your cardboard out on the flat surface. With your ruler, mark a line along a straight edge that is about ½” longer than your magazine. From the top of the line, make a 5” horizontal line. From the bottom of your first line, draw a horizontal line that is 1” wider than your magazine. Starting at the end of that line, draw a vertical line half the length of first line. That leaves you with two line ending points. Connect the two, and you have the basic shape of your magazine box.
Cut this shape out, and then trace it onto another piece of cardboard, and cut it out. You now have the two side pieces for your box. Decide how wide you want your storage box to be. You then need to make a cardboard strip that wide to fit the front of the box, the bottom, and the back and cut them out. Using your box tape, assemble your box. Try to keep the tape as smooth as possible.
Now comes the fun part. You can decorate your box any way you choose. You can use any kind of paper or fabric you like to cover your box. Gift wrap can make a nice covering, but you can use any lightweight paper. Work carefully to glue the paper smoothly onto the box and down inside for about 2”. Make your seams at the back corners where they won’t show.
After allowing the glue to dry, it’s time to Mod Podge your magazine storage box. Using your brush, smooth on a coat of Mod Podge. The secret to using Mod Podge on paper is to just brush it on and not keep brushing a spot over and over. That could end up rubbing a hole in the paper or taking the color off. Just lightly do a first coat on everything but the bottom, and let it dry thoroughly. You’ll want to give the box two more coats letting it dry in between which will create a beautiful hard finish. Put one light coat on the bottom to protect the paper.
Now your magazine storage box is finished and ready for use. If you keep a paper pattern of the pieces you used, you’ll be able to make more boxes by just tracing the pieces. You can make a whole row of colorful boxes to contain your entire magazine collection and keep your magazines neat and easy-to-find.
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