Paper Christmas Wreath

I've said before I'm not a crafty person. I like to find ideas and put my own touch on them. That's what I did with the paper Christmas wreath. I found the inspiration here at Sara's Art House. Sara IS very crafty, so I follow her blog to get ideas.

This wreath cost me nothing. I already had all the supplies on hand. I used cardboard from a box that had been delivered (it had my husband's Christmas present in it....shhhh, don't tell) to our house. I already had the scrapbook paper, glue, paper punches, buttons, and duct tape. Yes, I said duct tape. No wreath maker should be without it.

I traced a large circle onto the cardboard and cut it out. I used a big Tupperware bowl as the template. Then I used a smaller Tupperware bowl for the center. I think it's about 12 inches across, roughly.


I punched out circles from the scrapbook paper. The largest punch I had was 1 11/16 inches, which wasn't nearly big enough. So I used a lid from a peanut jar to trace bigger circles. If you don't have any circle punches, look around your house for objects you can trace.

I layered the circles and glued them together first. Then I started gluing them to the cardboard, starting around the outside. It would take too much time to glue them one by one, so I squeezed out a long line of glue and did several at a time.


The first row ended up looking like this.


I repeated the gluing process for the inside row, pressing everything down firmly as I went.


I turned the wreath over and placed a heavy cookbook on top of it so the paper wouldn't curl too badly as it dried. It worked great!


When the glue was dry, I added buttons for a little more texture.


Here's where the duct tape comes in. I needed an easy way to hang this up. So I found some sparkly wire garland, the kind you find in the gift wrap section of the store. I twisted it to form a loop and taped it on the back with duct tape.


The last step - finding a place to hang it!


Yes, that is an intercom on the wall beside the wreath. Yes, it is fun. I love being able to call the kids from anywhere in the house without yelling. And they can't use the "But I didn't hear you" excuse.

This is an easy craft for the kids to get involved in. The inspiration to do this wreath didn't hit me until after they had gone to bed. But I have plenty of paper left over, so I'll let them have a go at making their own. I'll just make their cardboard circles a little smaller, though.

For more frugal ideas, visit Life As Mom's Frugal Friday.