How to Make a Paper Wreath from a Book [Pic heavy]

I stumbled across a couple of tutorials on Youtube the other day. They were on how to make a paper wreath out of antique books. I fell in love with the wreaths. (One and two.) The second one uses a book from 1882. Geeeeze. Okay, first off, I'm not necessarily against re-purposing books to make things, but a book from 1882? Maaaaybe not - even if the book is in a different language. I don't think any of my thrift stores even have books from that far back.

So I decided I'd do the "aging" affect on a newer book. Now, I tend to get attached to books rather easily, so I knew the best way I could acquire a book for this task was to quickly choose one without thinking too much in to it. I went to the Dollar Tree, and picked one up that was around the size I was looking for. A book for a dollar. Woot.


I... I took a picture of my materials before I started. I swear I did. Multiples in case one didn't focus! But the pictures have fallen in to the void, somewhere in Narnia I suspect. So I shall instead illustrate the items you shall need for my method. Do be sure to click on the picture to get the full effect. You're welcome. LOL.


Okay!

Supplies needed:
~One cheapo book that has around a hundred pages in it. (mine had pages that were about 6inches by 9inches)
~Foam core board
~Instant coffee
~Water
~Tape
~A towel
~A compass (Or something that lets you draw an 8in circle and a 4in circle)
~A spray bottle
~Ornaments
~A stapler
~Staples
~Scissors
~Paper binder clip
~A glue gun
~Extra glue sticks

Phew! What a shopping list. Luckily, I already had a few of the things, so I only needed to purchase the book, instant coffee, ornaments, spray bottle, and extra glue sticks. Less than ten bucks spent.






Step 1: Carefully tear the pages out of the book, as close to the spine as possible. You can do them in groups, but be careful. The more you tear out at a time, the more likely you'll rip a page.

Here's the group. Now, both tutorials I linked to say you need 120 pages, so that's what I did. However, I jam packed my first wreath and only used 80. So I suppose it all depends. I'd go with closer to a hundred, so you have extras just in case.

Step 2: Cut the rough edge off each sheet - the part that was attached to the spine.

Done did it!

Now comes the aging steps...

Step 3: Brew approx. 16oz of instant coffee. And by that I mean, pour a few tablespoons of coffee in to some hot water. Mix, then let it cool. Transfer to spray bottle.


Step 4: Place sheets on towel. Liberally spritz each page, front and back.

I placed each sheet on the towel like that only for the picture. In reality, I spritzed four sheets at a time, then flipped them over and spritzed again.




Step 5: Let dry.

First I let them dry a bit in a pile, then I separated each one and made a new pile. The sheets cling to each other if they're soaked, but once damp, they no longer do that - if you separate them first - and then they dry faster. Hopefully that made sense. If you have room, you could of course just splay all the sheets out on their own from the get go. I didn't have enough space. Or patience. lol.



Here are the dried pages, with an original sheet in the bottom quarter of the pic to compare. I love how they turned out. So not uniform. lol.

Step 6: Roll each page in to a cone. Tape it together.

Try making sure the tape is somewhat lower on the cone. Helps hide the tape in the wreath.

Also, there are many ways to roll the page in to a cone. Here you can see a short fat cone, a long thin cone, and one somewhere in between. The shape of the cone will determine how many sheets you need for your wreath, as well as how it looks. I chose the third option here. Try and make your cones as uniform as possible.

Seeing this tiny pile, and realizing I had 120+ to do made me realize that this could get overwhelmingly messy fast. lol.

So I gathered them in to stacks of more manageable groups of ten. lol.

Step 7: Flatten the bottom of the cone, making sure the tallest corner of your cone is the "back". Staple the flattened bottom about an inch from the end.

Step 8: Prepare your foam core board. Mark the center, and, using the compass, make an 8inch circle, with a 4 inch circle inside of that. Then mark "12 o'clock", "3", "6", and "9" on each circle. Cut down your board, but leave some space around the circle.

Step 9: Grab your glue gun and start gluing! Start at your 8 inch circle's "12 o'clock". Glue your cone so the staple lines up with the circle. Continue around the circle.

The tutorials say you should glue one cone to 12, 3, 6, and 9, before you continue around your circle, but I forgot that when I was doing it.

It didn't turn out too bad though.

Step 10:  Once you've completed the first layer, continue on to the inner circle.

Step 11: Add more layers as you see fit, but keep some space in the center free.

And... we're good.

Like I said, I only used 80 of the 120+ pages I made. And as you can see, my wreath is pretty darned full. Again, it all depends on the size of the cone.


Step 12: Prep your ornaments by removing any unnecessary pieces.

I got the bigger ornaments and the small jingle bell acorn ornaments at the Dollar Tree for $2 total. The smaller sphere ornaments were from Target, $2 total - one set of shiny, one set of matte. I took the acorn tops, and the little silver loop pieces off the ornaments. I actually didn't end up really even using the larger ornaments though. I glued one in to the center and realized it was too big, so I covered it up with the smaller ones. lol.



Step 13: Hot glue each piece in to the center of your wreath until you feel it's full enough.

I chose to do all red for this wreath. That's what was in my head when I first pictured my wreath, so that's what I did.


Almost done!!



Step 14: Attach the binder clip to the "top" of your foam core board in back.

I used hot glue to reinforce the clip, though I don't think it's necessary - the wreath isn't that heavy. I just love using the hot glue gun. lol.



Step 15: Hang it up on the wall with a hook or a nail of some sort - I used a thumbtack!

And you're done!!


I had 40+ page leftover, so I decided to make a slightly smaller, not-so-full second wreath with the remainder.

In hindsight, I should have just halved the circle measurements and made a smaller, full wreath. Ah well. I used green for the center of the second one.

There they are on the wall.

Tada!



So, I used most of the red acorn bells, all of the green ones, and all of the small green and red ornaments... but that left me with a bunch of gold and silver ornaments, plus the larger red ones! What's a girl to do when she's addicted to her hot glue gun?!



Well, first I glued some ribbon to one of the large red ornaments...

Then I cluster glued the rest on one by one.

And hung it high on the ceiling!

There it is with the wreaths.

I really like these wreaths! If I could do them over again, I would go back and remove some of the "chapter" pages, which have a solid gray line across them. I had so many extra cones I needn't have used the chapter pages, but ah well. They're still lovely.

...


I know what you've been wanting to ask all this time...

"...but noxy! What book did you choose!?!"

Well, from what I picked up while rolling cones, the book was called ...And Another Thing by Eion Colfer. I... think it's essentially a fan fiction that continues the storyline from the Hitchhiker's series. I saw Arthur and Trillion, Ford and Zaphod all in it... but I also saw Thor and Asgard. So... yeah. There ya go. :)