Recycled Magazine Map

This project shows you how to create a map of the world using only recycled materials and other items within your house.

• Glue
• Scissors
• Craft Knife and cutting mat (optional)
• Old or used magazines
• Coloured and/or white cardstock paper
• Printer (or you can draw)
• White paper
• Tape (masking tape or sellotape)

Start by getting yourself 4 pieces of A4 paper (or you can get 1 piece of A2). If you don't have a piece of A2 you will need to stick your 4 pieces of A4 together to make one big piece. I recommend putting the 4 pieces side by side and then just sticking them together on the backside (or whatever side you don't want to be seen). Next, you will need to go ahead and either print out the attached file of the world map or if you don't have a printer you can just roughly trace it. Then, once you have printed it out you can place the pieces together on top of the big A2 piece that you created and use a pen or pencil to imprint the design into the paper. This should leave you with the markings so you can then use a pencil and make it more visible.

Now that you have a base for your map you can start creating what will go on it. Start by ripping up pages from your magazines and organise them into piles of colour. I recommend having 7 colours but it's really up to you and what type of magazines you have on hand. Once you have ripped out all of the paper you need to decide which colour will cover which parts of the map, and then you can check that you have enough paper to cover the size of a certain part of the map.

Once you have all the pieces you need, you will need to grab the printed pieces of paper that you used to trace the outline of the world onto the base. You need these to stick the magazine pieces on to. As the photos show, you need to have the pieces of paper with the outline of the different parts of the map, have them facing up, and then stick your ripped out pieces of the magazine on. Make sure you stick the pieces on the front side of the paper and not the back because that would leave you with the piece round the wrong way. The, to make sure the pieces stick you can grab something heavy and put it on top of the paper and let it dry.

Now that you have covered the map in pieces of the magazine you can start cutting out different sections of the map. Some parts are quite small, so I recommend that you use a craft knife and if the piece is too small, just leave it and don't add it to the map. Then, once you have cut out each section you can stick them onto the base. I recommend that you try and rub as much of the pencil markings off the base before you stick the pieces because that way it will look cleaner overall. Especially with the smaller pieces, I recommend that you stick them onto that paper as soon as you cut them out, this way you can avoid losing them. To ensure each piece stays on and doesn't come off, I also recommend that you grab something that is heavy and place it over the paper but put plain clean paper in the middle so they don't get dirty or ripped.

Now you have a cool looking map to hang in your house!