Five easy ideas using newspaper
That stack of newspaper by the door is actually a free craft supply — and a surprisingly beautiful one.
Dear friend,
Ever looked at the stack of newspaper by the door and thought — there must be something I could do with that? Not just use it to protect the table, but actually make something from it?
Newspaper turns out to be one of the most generous craft materials going. It's large, it folds beautifully, it takes ink and glue and stitching without complaint, and it has that warm, grungy, vintage quality that's almost impossible to fake with anything you'd buy. The only thing working against it is that we've trained ourselves not to see it as a real material.
In this video I set out to change that — with five projects built almost entirely from newspaper: a multi-pocket booklet with more than twenty pockets, freeform envelopes, little pouches and baggies, an expanding pocket pouch you can stitch onto a journal cover, and a quick newspaper washi tape technique that needs nothing more than a strip of ordinary sticky tape. There are a few bonus experiments too, for when you want to go further.
The pocket booklet is the one I keep coming back to. Knowing the whole structure cost nothing, and then filling it up with little folded scraps and ephemera — there's a particular satisfaction in that.
If you'd like to make any of these yourself, the full tutorial is here — start to finish.
5 Easy DIY Ideas Using NEWSPAPER
What you'll make
envelope·mini journal·pouch·pocket·tuck spot·accordion book
What you'll learn
upcycled·binding·embellishing·folding·gluing·machine sewing
What you'll need
newspaper·pva glue·tape·washi tape·sewing machine·acetate
That shift — from making do to choosing — is one of the nicest things that happens when you spend real time with a material. I hope this gives you a reason to rescue that stack before it goes out. There's more to find here than five ideas.
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