Christmas Wreath From Old Book Pages

 

I love to recycle or re-purpose. I've been doing it my whole life.  I've been wanting to make some crafts from old book pages for some time. These wreaths were fun. 

I've made a few of them now.
  

 The two above are from regular sized paperback pages. Pre-aged.The one below is from an old encyclopaedia annual. The thinner pages allowed more free-formed shapes.

You'll need a foam board, or cardboard for backing, a razor knife, a glue gun, ornaments or natural items like pinecones and nuts, a pencil or stick to keep your fingers from getting burnt pushing the pieces onto the foam, 
and an old book.
 
Find a book you don't want, or get one at a old book store or garage sale. This is a 1985 annual of the encyclopedia. Some of the pages where off white already, but not aged. 

We can take care of that!

Use a razor for hard-backs, just tear out the paperback pages carefully. No need for a razor.
You will need around 60-90 sheets
Boring statistics look fun now! 
I'd like to find some old sheet music.

 

 Here's how I aged the pages:
(If they need it)

While the pages are baking you can cut your foam board.

You could also use a foam wreath, but you'd have no spot for the ornaments later. 

I will get 2 wreaths out of one 20x30 foam board

 

While you are baking and rolling paper you can also enjoy some tea and cake truffles 

(sort of like cake pops without a stick.)

Green, whole leaf tea mit blumen (flowers) from my sweet daughter.

German chocolate cake truffles. Recipe to come for these yummy yummies.

Back to business!

Roll cones, s-shapes, or double roses. Roll everything the same or not. Roll uniformly tight 

or loosey goosey. I made all of mine rounded, but not identical.

I rolled some of my pieces while watching TV.

 As I neared the center I used the double ones as shown above so they would be shorter. Or you can tear them off shorter.

You can draw a circle if you like.
The next ones I made I actually pulled the paper cones further down and so more of the paper was on the board.

 I used the little container to give height to the spot I would glue the ornament cluster. You could use wads of paper glued in there instead. Once you work your way to the center check for spots that need filled in, then start gluing and piling ornaments or pinecones and ornaments into the center area.

 I used a large paperclip for a hanger.