Recycle Newspaper Wall Pocket for the Holidays
7 Materials
$4
4 Hours
Easy
It's a crafter's delight this time of year creating all sorts of wonderful projects for the holiday season! Here's a beautiful decorative wall pocket anyone can easily make (although a bit tedious) using recycle newspaper and a few other items you probably already have on hand! And the best part, it can be painted in your favorite color and embellished with just about anything to fit the occasion!
- Begin by taking a complete newspaper section, folding in half and folding again, vertically into three sections. Cut out on the vertical folds, giving your three strips per page, 22" long by 4" wide, give or take. It doesn't have to be exact.
- Next, lay the strip on a smooth flat work surface and place the rod or stick on the corner edge of the strip at an angle. Take the end tip of the paper over the rod, tucking under and start rolling the paper with hands pressed down on your work surface.
- Continue rolling a very thin tube until near the end where you will add glue at the corner edge, roll and seal.
- Please remove the skewer stick when finish making the tube.
*The group of pictures below is an example of how to roll the tubes. Make sure you use strips of paper 22"x4" wide to make the thinnest tubes possible and not the width of paper pictured.
You will need to make 34 tubes for a 16"x16" tube mat.
- Next, paint the tubes, one side at a time and let dry.
Once the tubes are dry, begin placing down the (17) vertically one inch apart and taping all of the ends down (one side) using painter's tape, on your work surface. If you don't have a measuring grid mat to use, just use painter's tape to tape down each tube in place one inch apart, and then place a longer piece of tape over all of them, to secure so they won't move.
Once the 17 rods are taped down, lift up every other vertical rod and insert one rod, horizontal at the first one inch make. After lining it up correctly and evenly spaced one inch apart, place a dab of hot glue where the raised vertical rods and horizontal rods meet and press down to seal . I turned the photo around so you can see better (red arrows) where to glue.
Remember, for a 16" square mat, you will need to add 17 rods, one inch apart. For each row, continue lifting up every other rod and inserting a new rod and sealing the rods in place with hot glue until you have inserted and sealed all 17 rods.
Remove the painter's tape and cut off all over-hanging rods on the sides to form a 16"x16" square mat. If you accidently glued down rods to your work surface, (like I did) use something like a silicone spatula to gently push and pry up. And check to make sure all over or under-lapping areas on the ends are glued down together.
Next, turn the mat so that the pointed corners are at the top and bottom. Gently grab the side corners and overlap the ends, in front, matching tube lines as evenly as possible. Glue tubes together, clamping in place, until dry.
Then gently fold up the bottom, like an envelope, to the center, matching tube lines. Pay close attention to the bottom corner edges, matching lines and pressing the tubes down in place for a neat and uniform look. Hot glue and clamp together until completely dry.
Now it time to decorate! You can decorate this adorable wall hanging pocket any way you can imagine! I made a simple poinsettia flower out of foam sheets and added a few faux evergreen sprigs for a lovely effect.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 19 comments
-
Very cute. I bet this would look adorable filled with pine bows and pine cones and such in place of a wreath on your door.
-
This is a great winter indoor project. Your instructions are excellent. I'm thinking envelope shapes with metallic paint to hold air plants.
-
That's a great idea! Thanks!
-
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Do you leave the skewers inside the rolled paper? Cute idea I can actually do!
Don't the rods break when you try to bend them
I love this! I think this could be used on a larger scale - how durable is it? Could I make baskets that would hold toys for my dogs for example?