This design takes advantage of the last of the Autumn plant material in my garden, and unwanted seasonal literature which usually goes from post box to recycling bin – holiday brochures! If I have no holiday brochures I use any magazine made of reasonable quality paper.
You will need:
Selection of magazines * Plastic test tubes or stemtex * Double-sided tape or stapler * Small selection of Autumn plant material (I used only 3 stems from the selection shown, but the other plants give you an idea of what can be used).
Requirements.
On the first page, I folded the long outer edge to the centre.
I then folded the outside edge of the doubled page to the centre, making a quarter width page, 4 sheets thick.
On the second page, I folded the bottom outer corner diagonally to the centre.
I then folded the top outer corner diagonally to the centre.
This made a triangle with its long edge at the spine of the magazine and the point facing towards the outside.
I repeated these two folds until all pages in the magazine had been folded. I also folded the covers. (If they are very thick, I cut them off.)
I join the back and front covers together, along the spine, using either double-sided sticky tape or a stapler. The finished ‘container’ should stand upright. If the magazines are thin, I use two or three to make it robust enough to stand, joining them together in the same way.
I stand up the completed container and put small plastic tubes in the loops formed by the folds. Alternately, I seal stems with stemtex and do without the plastic tubes.
I used gorgeous dark red peony foliage and a stem of clematis, leaves removed, but complete with fluffy seedheads.
I then added a couple of lily flowers. (These are Lily Allen, from my greenhouse.)
I have described only one way to fold the magazine, but have folded them in other ways to make different designs of 'container'. I would encourage you to play around with the folding and surprise yourself with a different creation! I recall seeing the window of a charity shop in Chester decorated with a whole display of these 'containers', it looked really eye-catching. This design can also be used to keep children/grand-children occupied!
I buy lily bulbs at the RHS Show, Tatton and plant them in compost. I keep the pot in the greenhouse and the bulbs usually flower in 10 to 12 weeks. I like to use home grown lilies when I demonstrate; the flower club audience has probably not seen the variety used before. I leave the bulbs in the green house to flower again in spring and then plant them in the garden to recuperate.