Recently, I was asked by my sister to enter a craft fair with her. There's a few of us girls in the family, so we thought it would be fun to share the cost of a table all together. We each are bringing unique crafts to the fair. I wanted to come up with something easy, but something that is also beautiful and inexpensive to make. A lot of my crafts take time and money. Two things I don't have an abundance of right now.
These book page wreaths were the perfect solution to my dilemma. They are not very time consuming, and they are very inexpensive to make. Each one cost me about $2 or $3 to make. While someone could easily duplicate this craft on their own, some don't have the time and they are willing to pay to take a completed wreath home with them. If I don't sell them all... I have lots of Christmas gifts already made for my friends, teachers, and family. It's a winning situation no matter what!
To start out, you need an old book. I'm a little picky about this part. I want a book that has meaning. I don't want some random story hanging on my wall, so probably other people feel the same way. I have a box of old books that are duplicates of ones I already own. I LOVE to give away books. I simply chose a few books from my book box. I found a couple of inspirational books to devour. I started by cutting off the spine of the book. I used a straight edge and an X-Acto knife.
The somewhat tedious part is rolling pages. And rolling pages. And rolling more pages of the book.
I have two different sizes that I roll. I make pages for the outer edge of the wreath, and I make another size for the inside of the wreath.
The pages for the outer edge, I roll all the way from the bottom of the page. I want as big of a cone as possible. These ones I put a small piece of tape to hold them shut. You could use a glue stick so the tape is not visible, or use a hot glue gun. Since I double layer the cones, I don't worry much about the tape showing.
The pages for the inside of the wreath, I roll starting about two-thirds of the way down the page. I continuing to tuck and roll a tight small cone until there is nothing left of the page to roll.
These ones I staple about 1 inch from the bottom of the cone. I make sure the longest part of the cone is lying flat on its backside.
The fun part is when all your pages are rolled, and fastened. Assembling the wreath is where the creativity kicks in! I think this is a hard project to mess up! Book pages always look beautiful to me!
I cut a square of foam poster board to adhere my cones to. You could cut this in a wreath shape, but I prefer to keep mine a square. I also draw an outer circle on my poster board to use as a guide. I then trace a smaller middle circle.
Before I glue any cones on, I add a binder clip to the top of the board. This wreath is very light weight, and this is what I use to hang it up. It works perfectly! You can leave the top of the clip facing up, or you could have it face down to make it easier to glue the cones on. Just be sure the one closest to the wall is in the upright position.
You're ready to glue the cones on now! I use the circles I drew earlier as a guide. I start with the longer cones I've made for the outside edge of the wreath. I glue four cones on to start with. This helps to know exactly how straight I need to glue each cone on. I don't like when the angle gets off. I want it to look circular. Although I have made a couple without measuring and they turn out okay too!
The pages that get glued on over the top of the binder clip, I glue not only to the board, I also put a little glue in between them each so they hide the black binder clip. I don't want that to be visible at all.
Now I fill in the rest of the circle with cones, making sure to put the tallest side of each cone on the backside. I want to be able to see the cone shape well.
I want to go on and add another layer of cones to the wreath. I think it gives a little bit more dimension which I really like.
This layer I make with my smaller cones that I stapled. I first draw another small circle as a guide. I glue the stapled cones around the middle again. The staple helps the cone to angle out a little, so that it doesn't lay completely flat.
Once all your cones are glued on, you can add a centerpiece for the finishing touch. With Christmas just around the corner, I thought some Christmas ornaments would be perfect for the center of these wreaths. And if they don't sell at the craft fair, I have already made Christmas gifts ready to go!
I found all my ornament centerpieces at Dollar Tree. This makes it the perfect extra special touch that sets each wreath apart from the others. No two wreaths can be identical. Each has hand folded papers. I also bought some potpourri from the dollar store to add underneath a few of my ornaments. This gives the wreath a nice fresh Christmas scent too!
I love how each one came out. All of them are different, but very pretty!
This one I made a little differently. Instead of using a square poster board, I used a rectangle shape. I also wasn't as careful about the size of cones, and the placement of them. I wanted a messier look to it. I think it came out very nicely. I especially love the little cardinal that sits up on top.
I made a mini one too!
It's so hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner!
