Crafting Corner Tutorial: How to make a bookish Christmas Wreath

After last year's success making a bookish Christmas Tree I decided I wanted to carry on the tradition and come up with a new book related Christmas craft to try out this year. After some google searching I decided to make my first ever Christmas Wreath. There are loads of different wreath designs out there but I fell in love with one I found on the blog What Katy Did and Kid so decided to follow Katy's tutorial.

So let's have a quick look at my finished wreath and then I'll give you step-by-step instructions on how to make your own!

I'm so thrilled with how this wreath turned out!

Now let's have a look at what you'll need to make your own:

• Polystyrene wreath ring - I bought a pack of 5 quite cheaply from Amazon here but you can probably find something similar in your local craft shop. The size is up to you but I used a 30cm one.
• An old paperback book - sorry fellow bookworms but the book will be destroyed in the process of making this so pick an old one and preferably one that's already falling apart LOL.
• Glue Gun & spare glue sticks - I used about 2.5 sticks to make my wreath, you could probably get away with less but this was my first time using a glue gun so I was a bit overzealous
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Ribbon or other items to decorate - You really can add whatever you like when it's finished, I used a red ribbon but I might try making another one with pine cones or Christmas tree baubles later

Once you've gathered your supplies it's time to get started

1. Take a page from your book
2. Fold it in half from top to bottom
3. Then fold it in half again so you end up with a long thin strip that's made up of four layers
4. Draw a leaf shape on the top page (you could create a template but I ended up just cutting the shapes out freehand, I think it looks nicer if the leaves aren't all a uniform shape).
5. Cut out the leaf shape (cutting through the whole folded piece of paper)
6. You'll end up getting 4 leaves from each piece of paper
7. Fold each leaf in half so they'll give a more 3D shape when you stick them to your wreath

You'll need to repeat steps 1-7 a few times until you have enough leaves to start sticking them to the wreath. I started off by making 40 leaves (using 10 pages from my book) but in the end it took me 120 leaves (30 pages) to finish the wreath. It's up to you if you want to make all the leaves to start or just cut out more as you go along but I found it much easier to have a bunch ready before I got the glue gun heated up.

At this point it's just a case of starting to stick your leaves down, if you're anything like me you'll probably end up getting glue everywhere so make sure you put something down to protect whatever surface you're working on!

I started by placing a row of dots across my wreath and sticking 6 leaves in place. From there you just slowly add more leaves as you work your way around the wreath making sure all the leaves point in the same direction. The leaves don't have to be touching but try to make sure that you don't leave any holes that you can see the polystyrene through. The idea is to layer the leaves so that they overlap slightly and don't leave any gaps in the finished design.

You can use the end of your pencil to help you push the leaves into place and that will definitely make things easier when you reach the end of your wreath and are trying to push leaves in underneath your original starting point to close the circle.

It takes time for the wreath to start to come together but it's worth the effort when you see the finished product! As you can see I decorated mine with a red bow made from ribbon which I just glued in place using the glue gun but your decorating options are unlimited so let your imagination run wild.

I also glued a smaller length of ribbon to the back to make a loop so the wreath can be hung from a door or picture hook.

I'll update this post when I try out different designs but in the meantime if you make a wreath of your own I'd love to see it so please leave me a link in the comments if you blog about it!

As I only used about 30 pages of my book to make this I have plenty left to create more wreaths or try another bookish craft. If you want to try making the Christmas tree I made last year you can find my instructions here. You'll need around 200 pages still stuck together to create a tree and you'll end up with something that looks a lot like this:

So what do you think of my Christmas Wreath? Have you made anything similar? If you have any other bookish crafting ideas I'd love to see them, I'm always looking for new craft projects to try!

Update 9th December:

So it seems like I've become a little addicted to making Christmas Wreaths because I've made two more since I first posted this!

This wreath was made in exactly the same way as the previous one except I cut out holly shaped leaves instead of oval ones and I used Christmas tree baubles to add berries. The shape of the leaves did mean it took more to cover the wreath, I lost count in the end but I think I made around 180 leaves (so used roughly 45 pages from a book).

I wasn't planning on making any more after the holly wreath but then I had a bit of a lightbulb moment and knew I just had to make a Rudolph version. I just couldn't stop thinking about it until it was done and I'm rather happy with the results. I used the original style leaves for this one (just because it took less leaves to create) and then I drew the eyes and antlers on an old Amazon delivery box. The red nose is a Christmas parcel topper I found in Paperchase and the mini Santa hat is one I bought for my cats from a pet shop a few years ago. All the decorations are glued in place apart from the Santa hat which I attached using dressmaking pins so that I can remove it to reuse later if I need to. So here is the finished result:

What do you think? Which is your favourite of the three wreaths? If you make one and come up with your own ideas for decorations I'd love to see them so please leave me a link in the comments!