Junk Mail Art Tutorial

Ever wondered what you could possible do with all the piles of junk mail you get every week? .... besides throwing it away or sending it to the recycling bin, I mean.  I always notice the bright colors and think... I should make something with this.  

Well, I finally came up with something fun..... some Junk Mail Art!

Here's a little tutorial to get you started:

Materials:

• Picture of a feather- You can download my feather drawing to use.
• 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of printer paper or cardstock- to print the feather picture onto and glue the junk mail strips to.
• 8 x 10 sheet of watercolor paper or cardstock
• Junk mail
• paper cutter
• Rubber Cement or Glue Stick
• scissors

Step 1.  Print the FEATHER PICTURE onto a sheet of computer paper or card stock.

Step 2.  With a paper cutter, cut long strips of junk mail.  Cut them long enough to cover the computer paper diagonally.

Step 3:  Glue the junk mail strips diagonally on the backside of the computer paper - make sure the feather picture is face down for this.  Cover the entire page.

 Step 4:  Trim the edges of your paper with a paper cutter.  Since the final size of the piece is 8x10 inches, trim the length to 10 inches here.

Your sheet should look like this after trimming it down.

Step 5:  Flip your sheet over and on the edge farthest away from the feather picture, slice off a few vertical strips.  I made four, each progressively smaller than the one before.  Make sure not to cut through the feather picture here.  You are going to need it for the next step.

Step 6.  Cut out the feather picture on the backside.  You should now have four junk mail strips and one feather.  Now you are ready to assemble your piece of art!

 Step 7:  Take your 8x10 sheet of watercolor paper and glue the vertical strips down to one side and the feather centered in the remaining space.  Presto!  Junk mail art!

Step 8:  (optional)  You can turn the remaining junk mail sheet into a work of art by gluing it down to another sheet of paper.  Sweet!   Two pieces of art for the price of one!