I am finally getting around to sharing these magazine holders I made my husband for Father’s Day. This project was inspired by this amazing photo my husband took of the new Guthrie theater in Minneapolis. I wanted to give him a great way to store his books in the closet. These are super simple, but I thought I’d share a brief tutorial in case you are wondering how to make your own. Here is the step by step to embellish plain magazine holders with a favorite photo for instant functional art.

Supplies

• Photo you love in landscape orientation (see below for sizing)
• 3 Magazine Holders
• Mod Podge
• paper cutter

1. Measure the face of your magazine holders. I chose dark gray holders to compliment the photo, but you can use any color you want or even wooden magazine holders. Mine have a slightly rounded corner so I only measured the width of the flat face which was about 3 and 5/8 inches.
2. Multiply your measurement above by 3 to get the width for your photo. Mine needed to be 10.875 inches wide. Either size and print the photo yourself or have it printed at a photo center. Be sure to lock the proportion so when you set the width the height will adjust accordingly. I printed mine on a premium matte photo paper.
3. Cut your photo into three pieces. In my case each piece was 3.625 inches wide.
4. Apply Mod Podge to the back of each piece and adhere them to the magazine holders with the top edges lined up.
5. Mask off any part of the magazine holder you don’t want Mod Podged. Now add a coat of Mod Podge over the top of the photo. I used a brush because the brush strokes give the photo a hand painted look. Try a roller or foam brush if you don’t want the brush strokes.
6. Line up your magazine holders to make a complete photo and enjoy!