Make A Container From A Magazine - Provided by Sharon Nolan
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.