How to Make Carolers Out of Magazines

Magazine subscriptions are always piling up, but tossing out old magazines seems like such a waste. Finding creative ways to recycle them will keep them from overflowing our landfills and provide your home with stylish décor. Make carolers out of magazines for an appealing holiday vignette. Each caroler is made from one magazine, so you are able to decide how many you want in your grouping. This simple project is a wonderful idea for a school art project in preparation for the holidays. The kids can successfully create a beautiful decoration while learning the importance of recycling.

Things You'll Need

• Magazine
• Stick glue
• Spray paint
• Hot glue gun
• Wooden skewer
• 2-inch Styrofoam ball
• Flesh colored acrylic paint
• Paint brush
• Felt scraps
• Ruler
• Construction paper scraps
• Curly doll hair
• Blush
• Cotton swab
• Black ball-head straight pins, three
• Paper hole punch
• Craft glue

Instructions

1. Lay a magazine on your work surface. Fold the top right-hand corner to the spine, creating a triangle shape. Crease the fold. The triangle bottom will be a few inches above the bottom edge of the magazine.

2. Fold the slanted right-hand side of the triangle even with the spine. Crease the fold. The bottom of your triangle will create a point that extends past the bottom of the magazine.

3. Turn the folded triangle page to the left, revealing the opposite side and the remaining horizontal bottom edge of the magazine page. Bring the extended bottom point up and tuck it under the horizontal bottom edge of the magazine page. Crease to fold. Fold each page of the magazine in the same way.

4. Apply stick glue to the front of the first folded triangle. Stand the magazine up. Fan the pages to create a cone shape and press the back triangle to the glue on the front triangle to hold the shape. This is the body of your caroler; the seam is the back.

5. Spray paint the folded magazine cone shape in a color of your choice for the caroler's coat.

6. Apply hot glue to the tip of a wooden skewer. Insert the tip of the skewer into a 2-inch polystyrene plastic ball. This is the caroler's head. While holding the skewer, paint the ball using flesh-colored acrylic paint. Allow the paint to dry. Apply hot glue along the length of the skewer. Insert the skewer into the tip of the cone. Push down until the head is touching the cone's tip.

7. Cut a strip 1/2 inch wide by 10 inches long from felt that matches your caroler's coat color. This is the arms. Tie a knot in the center of the strip. This is the hands. Drape the strip around the front of the body, bringing the ends together in the back, just below the head. Overlap the ends 1/2 inch and hot glue to the neck to secure.

8. Cut a 2-inch square from construction paper in a color of your choice. Fold the square in half and crease. This is the songbook. Open the book and apply a dot of hot glue to the center of the outside crease. Place the knotted hands of the caroler over the glue. Note: The book will be between the hands and the body.

9. Apply hot glue to the top, sides and back of the head. Rub a 2-inch mass of curly doll hair in your hands to fluff. Place the hair over the glue. Apply blush to the cheeks using a cotton swab. Insert a straight pin with a black ball head in the center of the face for the nose. Insert two more black ball head straight pins above the nose for the eyes. Make punches in red construction paper with a paper hole punch. Apply a dab of craft glue to the back of one punched-out red paper dot. Place the dot below the nose for the caroler's mouth.

10. Cut a strip 1 inch wide by 10 inches long from felt that contrasts to the coat color. This is the scarf. Tie the scarf around the caroler's neck.