How to Make Miniature Magazines

You can easily accessorize your modern dollhouse with these colorful miniature magazines using your printer and junk mail circulars.

You can easily drop a fortune building and accessorizing your dollhouse. I tend to buy things I can’t or do not want to attempt to make. But half the fun is coming up with cheap ways to make your own minis.

Whether your dollhouse is themed in the Victorian era or modern times, you can find images of magazine covers all over the internet. You can easily resize them yourselves using Photoshop, Canva or Pic Monkey.

I recently made this industrial farmhouse coffee table and was trying to figure out how to style it. Just like in my house, it needed magazines. So I a few hours finding different magazine covers and creating my own miniature versions.

My kitchen table was riddled with this past week’s mail and I eyeballed my Costco circular, along with the rest of my junk mail. It was just the right thickness for my mini magazines and I quickly got to work.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)!  Read my full disclosure policy.

Supplies you need

• Magazine circulars: You want to find magazines that are the right thickness for mini magazines. Also you want the binder to be glued, but not stapled. You can use stapled magazine circulars, just add a bit of glue down the seam of the bind between every page.
• Small notepads: You can also use small notepads, you know the free ones you get in your junk mail? But I prefer to use these for books, but that’s another tutorial!
• Cutting tool: I used regular scissors and eyeballed the cutting. If you want to be more precise, use a ruler and xacto blade.
• Mod Podge: This gives our magazine cover and backs a nice gloss. You can also use watered down white glue. Be sure that your glue dries clear.
• Paint brush: This is used to apply the Mod Podge.
• Print out of mini magazine covers and backs: You can resize your own magazine covers yourself or use ones that I resized. You can find my free miniature magazines printout here. I chose mostly ads for the back covers. If you resize your own, be sure to have your front cover and back cover the same exact size. Learn tips on how to print in hi-resolution here.

Step-by-step directions

1. Print out the miniature magazine covers and backs at high quality onto regular printing paper or matte presentation paper. You can also resize your own. Do not use the image below as it is not a high resolution file. Use the link found in the supply list.

2. Cut out each magazine, making sure that the front and back cover of each magazine is intact and one piece.

3. Fold each magazine cover in half and place over the binder of your magazine ad circular.

4. You will want the interior pages of your magazine just slightly smaller than the outer cover. Mark with a pen or simply cut out each magazine from the circular. You can do this one at a time or all of them at the same time. Just be sure you know which cut outs go with which covers.

5. Brush the front and back covers with a light coat of Mod Podge to give it shine and let it dry. This is the side with the images on it.

6. Once the covers are dry, add Mod Podge to the inside of your covers (the blank side), then carefully place the magazine cut outs inside and press firmly. The covers will be glued to the first and last page of the magazine.

7. Let the magazines dry completely before handling them or placing them on any piece of dollhouse furniture so you don’t get Mod Podge on anything fragile or important.

Project tips and FAQs

Because I am foodie, I included some of my favorite food magazines. If you are choosing your own images and resizing them, Look for bright colorful cover images with big images. Small details will get lost when you reduce it down.

You do not want a busy cover with too many things going on. The simpler the cover image, the better it will look in 1:12.

These mini magazines do not have content inside. I had zero desire to resize and include miniature pages inside these little magazines.

PS If you try this craft, why not leave a star rating in the direction card right below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page? I always appreciate your feedback.

You can also follow me on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram. Sign up for my eMail list, too!