Crafting a Personal Newspaper Prop: My Journey and Insights
- fotaquest
- 4 hours ago
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Crafting a Personal Fake Newspaper: My Journey and Insights
By Lars Guo
Published: June 4, 2025
Opening Message Hi folks! In this blog, I want to share my experience of making a newspaper from scratch. Quick disclaimer: this isn’t the most realistic or professional approach—if you’re looking to become a top-tier newspaper designer, you might want to look elsewhere. But if you're just looking to create a prop or a fun project, this is for you. I hope you enjoy it!
Background Lately, I’ve been diving into diorama-making, and one of my favorite props has been the miniature newspapers I included to add realism. That small detail really sparked something in me—I wanted to try creating a full newspaper myself. Out of curiosity and creativity, I gave it a shot.
Prework The planning stage is the hardest part. You have to figure out your layout, design, and—of course—what you’re going to write. It took me about an hour to brainstorm article ideas and organize the overall structure. It’s a bit of a puzzle, but once things click, it gets smoother.
Writing the Articles This part was surprisingly easy. Write what you're passionate about! I was tired of all the negativity in the news, so I focused on good news stories—something uplifting and worth reading. I also thought about what kind of images would complement each article. That planning made writing even more enjoyable.
Designing in Google Docs If you’re going for a press release feel, Google Docs has templates you can start with, but I didn’t want to go that route. I tried using tables to simulate columns, but that didn’t work well for me. Instead, I created my own layout. I used the Title style for the newspaper name, and then the Subtitle style for the writer’s name and publication date. For each article headline, I applied the Title style again. Depending on the article, I either used columns or left the layout as a single column. I inserted images and set them to wrap around the text, which gave it that newspaper-like look.
I used the Lobster font for all major titles to give it a classic, polished feel. For the article text itself, I alternated between Comic Sans and Times New Roman, keeping the font size around 12 or 14 for readability. Titles were always larger than the body text. One important thing I learned was to avoid putting images in the center—it broke up the flow of the article too much. Placing them on the far left or right worked much better. I’m sure with more skill and time, it’s possible to successfully center an image, but I haven’t mastered that yet.
Printing the Newspaper I printed my first version, but kept the rest digital. You can use regular printer paper, or experiment with other types of paper to give it a different texture and feel. Right now, my newspaper exists mostly in digital form, but I plan to print more editions in the future.
Would I Do It Again? If I had to start over with a new layout from scratch, probably not—it was a frustrating process. But if I could reuse the layout I’ve already built, then yes. Creating the first version took a lot of trial and error. It was mentally tiring trying to figure out how to make it look the way I wanted, and I still don’t think it’s perfect. But now that I have a basic structure I like, I feel much more confident moving forward.
Final Thoughts Did you like this post? Have you ever thought about making your own fake newspaper or props for creative projects? Let me know—I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to sharing more soon. Have a wonderful day!
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