Pretty Paper Christmas Wreath

I  love making wreaths. It is a very satisfactory activity for someone with a short attention span, such as myself. In the wonderful world of Pinterest, I found this wreath. If you look at the tutorial, however, she has a lot of things I don't have. Like a really nice printer. She printed all the cardstock. And then she glues antique book pages to the back of each strip. Not gonna happen. Her's is beautiful, don't get me wrong, but obviously she is more patient than I am! Also, I didn't really want a year-round wreath, I wanted a Christmas wreath! So, while I needn't rewrite her perfectly fine tutorial, here is what I did.



I purchased:
- Floral pins ($4.99 at Hobby Lobby-used a 40% off coupon)
-12 inch straw wreath ($2.99 at Michael's used 20% off coupon)
-Colored card stock ($9.99 regularly at Hobby Lobby, on sale for 50% off) It is called "Christmas Brights"
-Roll of polka-dotted ribbon ($1.99 regularly at Michael's, on sale for 70% off)

(Is it weird that I want to see pictures of this kind of stuff? I get so frustrated when I can't visualize what someone is talking about. So, I posted one for you!)

She recommends cutting your card stock into two-inch widths. Since I went with a smaller wreath, that would have been a little too large. I used the really nice commercial paper cutter at our church and I chopped my paper into 1 7/8 inches (approximately). The nice part is that I also ended up cutting a few by hand, and you can't really tell the difference. The other cool part: I only used about 15 sheets of the card stock, so that made this a really cheap project, coming in around $7. You could make one for every season!

So, anyways, you cut your paper into strips, then you put the ends together and push a floral pin through the paper into the wreath. Note here: do not put your strips too close together. I found that if I put the top of one strip in the middle of the strip underneath, it was about right. If you put them too close it makes it too full and it looks funny.

That is really all there is to it! I made the little paper accordion like she did, but I don't know if I love it. I will probably leave it, anyway. It was really tricky to form it into a circle! Then I used a one inch punch on some left over paper and hot glued the little circle onto the accordion. I added a little ribbon, and it was done. The whole project probably took me about 45 minutes, after I cut the paper.

I think my short cuts made it less difficult, but not really any less cute. I am happy with it, and since I have a tendency to want to change things up frequently, it will be really easy to remove it all and start again. It will make a great addition to my Christmas decorations. I love a simple DIY, especially at Christmas time!