Girls' Weekend Part 2

For our Girls' Weekend we each came prepared with a "mini class" to teach. It was so much fun to anticipate what everybody was planning. First, I'll show you what I taught the gals.

Kari's Class:  Paper Wreath

I love mixing old and new. In my home you will find old windows and chairs alongside our newer furniture. I bought an old gun box from a garage sale not because we own a single gun but because I loved its rustic, weathered look. My Grandma's violin sits, nested with other newer knick knacks, and old books are piled on the shelves and tables around my house.  I love the character and diversity that they add to a space. So, when I came across this idea, I was immediately drawn to it.  It's perfect because it is made from something I love anyway....old books!

Here's how we made it.  (By the way, these have been all over blogland in recent years, so, I'm not claiming this as my own idea.  In fact the original inspiration came out of a Pottery Barn Catalog).

First, get an old book and tear out a bunch of its pages.  I'll be honest and tell you that I felt guilty buying books with the sole purpose of tearing them to shreds.  But when I saw how cute our wreaths were turning out, I got over it pretty quickly.  As my Mom said, "This is just another way to love them."

Okay, now you need a base for your wreath.  I just cut ours out of cardboard.   A plate and a cup worked great as templates.

Next, roll your pages into funnels.  We experimented with different shapes and sizes and discovered it really doesn't matter, the end result is beautiful.  Uniform funnels = a beautiful paper wreath.  Haphazard funnels = a beautiful paper wreath.  Whatever you like.

With a hot glue gun start gluing the funnels down in a North, South, East, West pattern.

Now for the fun part!  Start filling in the empty spaces with your funnels.

Keep filling things in until you have the whole bottom row done and it looks something like this. 

As you move onto the next row stagger the funnels so that any bare spaces are covered up.  Keep gluing until you are happy with how full it is (I ended up doing three rows).

Add a little ribbon to hang it with and...Ta-DA!  A beautiful paper wreath from an old book, some scrap cardboard and a whole lot of hot glue!



 Next up is Marci's Class.  The perfect post-Thanksgiving post!