How to make a book page wreath

Welcome to Transformation Thursday! It’s the one day of the week we all get together to celebrate getting stuff done. No matter if you’ve been coming around for months (or years), or this is your very first transformation rodeo – everyone is welcome to link up your projects at the bottom of this post.

I know, I know… I’m a little behind on the trend. Everybody has already posted them all over blogworld, but I’m in a creative slump, so I thought I’d just do something – anything – just to get my juices flowing again. Couple the creative block with the fact that I really, REALLY wanted to make one of these, and it was a good way to push myself to do something new (and it was pretty relaxing, too!)

I started with a book of Shakespeare plays. I found mine at a thrift store for 50 cents a while ago. I watched a movie while I rolled the pages up one by one to make it easier when I went to put them on the wreath “form.” It took about 1/3 of the book.

Next, I cut out a circle from a large piece of a box – just two circular objects (a container lid for the outside, a bowl for the inside), then cut the circles with a box knife to create my “form.”  I wrapped a piece of seam binding around, left a loop for hanging, then glued it down around the cardboard circle. Next, I placed cones made from the full size book page to make 4 quadrants (north, south, east, west). I made the cones, did a dab of hot glue to make them stick together, then hot glued them onto the cardboard.

First I did a whole round of the large pages, making it really full with different variations of the cones – skinny, fat, medium.

Then I folded and cut the pages in half to make smaller cones. I made a big whack of them, then filled in with another layer, right on top of the full size pages.

The more layers, the better. Now, I have to admit, the layering is where patience is handy. It took me 3 hours of gluing cones together to get it this full, but my wreath is huge, nearly 3 ft. across, it makes a big impact!

  You also need to work from all different angles. I sat a while, stood a while, picked it up, looked at it from all different angles to keep it all uniform & stuff. But after a LOT of rolling, gluing, rolling, gluing, rolling, gluing…..

I have to admit that I really love it! There’s a ton of different methods on some great blogs out there to make one that’s uniform & perfect, but I like mine kinda free-form & organically shaped. It has a uniformity to the layers, but the sizes of the cones are each unique, as is the way I piece it together. All that hot glue later, it’s a really sturdy, beautiful piece… and it helped me overcome my creative slump, I think…

P.S. Joining Amanda’s Weekend Bloggy Reading Party :)

Sooooooo……. whatcha got? I wanna see – and so does everybody else! Please put your PERMALINK into the linky – and link back here so everyone can find all the great ideas. Please, please, PLEASE – pretty please DO NOT LINK TO A SHOP!!! Be sure to visit your neighbors and have fun – it is a party after all. *Please note: If you link up you are giving me permission to use your photos on my blog without contacting you (don’t worry, it’s only to show off your beautiful stuff!)*

Welllllllll…………. Let’er rip, tater chip!