Easy Decorations Made from LP Record Covers

Back in the old days, before the digital music revolution, people collected vinyl records. Today they still collect them, but before the 1990s a record's primary use was for listening. The art on record covers was half the fun of buying them and even now you can buy books filled with record cover art. Now records and their covers are used to decorate walls, ceilings, clocks and even furniture.

With the advent of cds, and now services like itunes where the art is small or nonexistent, record cover art is largely a thing of the past. In fact, the last time someone made a cd cover which was actually newsworthy was the Black Crowes' Amorica album.

Although some record albums and their covers are worth money, for the most part you can buy long playing twelve inch records for a dollar each or less at yard sales, flea markets and thrift stores. The strange and often surreal art on these records' covers can be made into a variety of crafts that are easy for the most inexperienced crafter to decorate with.

Onecraft to which the size of a long playing, or LP, record cover lends itself easily is a decorative box. The record cover is twelve inches in length and width. All you need is a record cover, some tape, scissors, and poster board in a color of your choice. First, cut the front of the cover and the back apart. Mark off four equal three inch wide strips. Cut off one of the strips, fold it into the shape of a box with no lid or bottom and tape it. Place the box on the back of the record and trace a square; cut it out and tape it to the bottom of the box.

To make the lid, put the box on the remaining record cover and trace a square. Cut just around the outside of the square to ensure that the lid is larger than the box. To make the sides of the lid, cut a one inch wide by fifteen inch long strip of poster board. Put the top shape on the left end of the poster board and draw a line on the right side of the square of record cover. Mark four equal sections of the same size on the strip and trim off the small section remaining at the end. Now you simply fold the marked sections into a square shape and tape it to the lid. You can decorate the strip of poster board with a ribbon, with cuttings of the remaining record cover, leave it plain, or anything else you can imagine.

Another use for the record covers could be as a ceiling decoration or a border around a room. Simply staple them in a line around the room, staple them to cover the ceiling or staple them in any pattern you choose. You can make entire record covers or cutouts into a collage to cover a door or wall, or a piece of artist's canvas or poster board which you can then hang.

Don't spend fifty dollars on a special frame to hold the record covers when you decorate; cut the record covers to fit ordinary picture frames and simply switch out the covers for new ones when you get tired of them. Similarly you can cut record covers to fit inside a purse which has plastic sleeves on the outside meant to display photos.

You can even make Christmas ornaments out of record covers. Cut shapes out of them, laminate or preserve them with contact paper, cut a hole in the top and tie a ribbon through the hole. Along with some 45 records, either with a special hole punched in them for the ribbon or with the ribbon through the center, you could make a great music themed tree. You could even hang the record cover ornaments from the ceiling all year for permanent decoration.

Decoupaged furniture is always a hot item. Its very easy. Just cut up the record covers the way you'd like them to look, glue them to a piece of wooden furniture and when the glue dries, varnish the furniture. It looks elaborate but it is just that simple to decorate a piece of furniture.

I'm willing to bet that if done neatly and carefully these crafts could even be marketable. But most importantly they are fun to make and cool to see. So if you love music and thought you weren't artistically inclined, head to the thrift store and start decorating!