How to Make Art with Junk Mail

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By Angela Antonelli
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Junk Mail is a Beautiful Thing

My shredder runneth over. Most likely yours does too. The tide of junk mail just keeps on rushing in, even in our increasingly "green-thinking" society. In the spirit of "reduce, recycle, renew" go grab that pile of mail and get creative.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Junk mail!
Old magazines
Glue
Scissors

Step 1

Gather together your junk mail and unused magazines, and start searching for colors. Tear or cut pieces of paper into small squares, and sort them by color. Older children and adults may want to narrow the colors down further by sorting them by hues.
Step 2

Decide what you'd like to create. The example used in this article is a rainbow, but you can make anything you'd like. A portrait, a bunch of flowers, a landscape, an abstract picture, patterns, etc.
Step 3

Lightly trace your design onto a piece of cardboard or paper.
Step 4

Glue squares of paper onto your sketch (kind of like color-by-numbers). You can complete your project all at once, or leave it out to work on periodically, as you would do with a puzzle.

Tips & Warnings

Very young children can help tear paper from magazines while you help them identify colors
Preschool age children enjoy practicing their scissor skills, and may prefer to cut shapes rather than tear them
School age children may enjoy cutting their scrap pieces into specific shapes and piecing them together with a more specific placement, resulting in "tighter" mosaic appearance
You can challenge children by giving them riddles such as, "find the color that is made by mixing red and yellow", or "find things that are the same color as a banana"
Always use child-safe scissors and non-toxic glue when working with young children

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