The First Wreath of 2012

I saw this wreath in the Sweet Paul magazine, and I thought it was a great idea for a free, diy wreath. So, I picked out some paper and warmed up my scissors for a whole lot of leaf cutting.

Sweet Paul

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures while I was putting the wreath together. Luckily, this is a very simple project that you can probably do a number of ways. Here's how I put mine together.

Step one:

Select your paper. I laid out a few different color schemes based on the paper I already had. I thought these blues with white were wintery. Plus, my 24 pack of Martha Stewart glitter has all these colors.

Step two:

Make a template leaf. Figure out the size and shape you'd like.

Step three:

Either trace out your leaf template 40 or 50 time, or just do it the way I did (aka the impatient method) and use the template as a cutting guide. I held the template on the paper to be cut in one hand and cut around the template using my scissors in the other hand. It worked out surprisingly well.

Step four:

Add glitter to some or all of the leaves. This step is optional, of course, but come on, you know you want to.

Step five:

Buy a cardboard wreath form or cut one out of an old box. I opted for the latter. My wreath is almost a foot in diameter, for reference.

Step six:

Once the glitter is dry on your leaves, use your glue gun or school glue or whatever you have on hand to start putting down leaves. My method was to glue down the first leaf just at the 'base' of the leaf (the opposite of the pointy side of the leaf), then I tucked the next leaf under the first one to hide the 'base' of the second leaf. I just alternated colors, angles and glittering of the leaves as I went around. When I had my wreath filled in, I went back and secured the tips of the leaves with a little more glue.

Step seven:

Glue a ribbon to the back of the wreath form to hang it. Voila! An inexpensive treat for you to see every time you walk in your front door – or wherever you decide to hang it.

Isn't Mother Nature great? We've had hardly any snow at all this winter, but she sent down a few flurries just in time for this picture.