Upcycled Decorative Magazine Holders...Part II

To refresh your recollection, here is where we left off last time, in Upcycled Decorative Magazine Holders Part I...I couldn't find any cardboard magazine holders that were cheap with a pretty silhouette for me to cover and decorate, so I made my own from a cardboard box.


To answer some questions I have received,
1.) I didn't want to cover the plastic because I was afraid the paper would not decoupage evenly over the holes, and
2.) I ended up removing the packing tape and going over all of the joints with masking tape so the spray paint would cover evenly (I was afraid the paint would not stick to the glossy surface of the packing tape).

I spray painted them all, inside and outside with a pretty robin's egg blue Krylon color from Michaels. Here is a picture of the first coat. It took a whole bottle to get the coverage I wanted...in retrospect maybe I should have put the decoupage finish on first so the cardboard wouldn't soak up quite as much paint.

Then I traced the cardboard magazine holders onto my pretty paper, which was Amy Butler Scrapbook paper in a big pad that gave me lots of choices that all conveniently blended in the same color scheme. I put on a coat of decoupage finish and placed the cutout paper on top, smoothing it down and letting it dry. I had this decoupage finish left over from the Great Decoupage Tear of 2006, when I inherited several old jewelry boxes from my Great Aunt Rose. You can use this, or ModgePodge, or basically any other type you can find at WalMart or Michaels or any craft store. It has the benefit of protecting the paper, and after about a month it is rock-hard and can actually be polished up with fine-grit sandpaper to a high gloss.

Then, once that was dry, I put on a coat of the decoupage finish on top of the scrapbook paper to make it more durable and shiny:


Once that was dry, I took an Xacto knife and trimmed off any overlapping edges before putting on the second and final coat of decoupage finish:

And here is the wonderful result! This is such an improvement over disorganized piles on the coffee table, and they are all together in order for easy reference when I need inspiration!
I've got tons of paper left over too, so I need to start thinking up some projects to use them on!

What do you guys think? Is this too much trouble? Would you have just spent the $60 for four of them in the store rather than taking all this time? Or do you think its worth it for the individuality and the recycling aspect?