Homemade Christmas Decor - ScrapSoul

Hello! I’m Debby, and I blog at ScrapSoul. I am a 39 year old Dutch mother of a son (2001) and a surprise daughter (2009) and married to a Canadian, and we are living in the Netherlands. I love to scrap, papercraft and all other things creative. There’s nothing I won’t try and dare to.

Right now I am a design team member for Let’s Scrap and starting up my own business in creative gifts for special occasions.

Today I’m going to show you how to make a festive book page wreath.

This would be a great home decor item for Christmas but leaving the Christmas wish behind, it would make a great all year round wreath. What about putting ‘welcome’ on there and hanging it on your front door? (Just make sure it won’t get wet…………………)

I made this, and I was amazed about how easy this was and how good the final result. I am going to try and explain to you how to make this. This is what you need:

Styrofoam wreath (mine was about 8″ diameter)
Old book (I used a paperback book)
Pins (regular or short ones, does not really matter)
Ink for the edges
Ribbon

You don’t really need the following items but you can if you want to spice it up:

A decoration piece for in the wreath (I used a wooden star about the size of the inner opening of the wreath, this can be your guideline for buying)
Glitter spray (there’s probably tons of people that would say you can’t, but I used glitter hairspray, I use it all the time on projects and never damaged anything and it is a frugal option)

You start with tearing pages out of your book. Don’t try and do it to neatly, but do make sure you still have whole pages. I started with 50 pages and I could not really tell you how much I used in the end but you can always take more out or throw the leftovers in the waste paper (or your fireplace, ha!)

Then ink the sides of your pages. Again: Don’t try and do it to neat. This is a great project to let go of your perfectionism, I had a hard time with it and at the same time lots of fun…..

When you have some pages inked you can started attaching them to the wreath. I used those tiny needles that you use for decorating, but you can use whatever you have lying around. Well, as long as they don’t come out the other side of your wreath I guess……………….

The hardest thing for me to explain is how to fold the pages. I tried to take pics of it, but it is always hard to takes pics of the entire process.

You start by folding your pages over lenghtwise BUT: don’t really fold/crease it! You just sort of put it together without really folding it (this does not really sound too good does it? I just hope the pics are more clear than I am). When you are done folding attach it to the wreath as showed in the pic. This will be your first layer. There are three layers in total. Use as many pins as neccesary to keep the papers in place. Mine has two, sometimes three.

This might be handy to mention: Most of my pics were taken from the back of the wreath. For me it was the handiest to work on the back too, but I guess that is all up to you!

You keep putting pages on until your first layer is completely filled. The pages overlap a little about a 1/3″ or so. Again, don’t be to precise, it can be half an inch on the one and 1/4 on the other one.

When your first layer is done we keep on moving to the second layer: This layer will be placed about two inches lower than the first one. I swear I took pictures from starting the first layer too but I can’t find them anywhere so you will have to do it with the pic of when the second layer is on. You can see in the pic that the second layer is much lower than the first. Again: don’t measure anything, just do it by sight. Trust me, it will work out great. By the way: This pic below was taken from the top.

When your second layer is done the back of your wreath will look like this:

And this will be the front: Again you can see that my pages are not lined up at all. How are we doing with letting perfectionism go?

If you are still with me here you are doing great, we are almost done. We are now starting the third layer. This layer will will placed overtop of the first layer but then facing the other way (so outside the wreath). This will make your wreath look fuller and cover up any of the styrofoam that was still visible after the first two layers. The pic will show you where about to place the third layer and what it will look like when you’re done (again: from the back).

At this point your wreath is done and you can start decorating. You don’t have to if you like it like this and you can use whatever you like to decorate it. If you decide to leave it like this you will only have to attach to ribbon to hang it. I used three different kinds of ribbon and fibers and placed them just around the wreath on top and bottom.

This is what I did with the star: I inked the edges with the same color ink I used for the pages and cut a shape with my Silhouette and adhered it to the star. You can use stickers, chipboard or whatever you like on it. Just look at it like a little canvas.

I attached the star with the twine that came with it but you can use whatever twine or ribbon that you like. This is what my wreath looks like.

I would love to ses what you came up with because I know there can be so many different looks to this. So please let me know, or leave a comment so I can check it out. And I promise that I will post the ones that I know about on my blog. And if you have any questions let me know, I would be more than willing to help you out.

Have a great weekend!

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Comments

Alison says

December 13, 2010 at 12:54 AM

Are you kidding me?! This is so festive and fun!!

Beverly @ FlamingoToes.com says

December 12, 2010 at 9:26 PM

That is such a cute wreath – I love the folded book pages and the addition of the ink. It’s so versatile too! Thanks for sharing. 😉

iluvmybugs says

December 11, 2010 at 4:44 PM

What a fantastic wreath Debby!! It has a vintage look (which I love and what a great way to recycle an old book)!! TFS and for the great directions.

~Terry~

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