Recycled Magazine Wreath Tutorial

About a month ago, a local magazine, What’s Up Annapolis, asked me to create a holiday wreath for Wreathfest, a fundraiser for the Chesapeake Arts Center. The center auctioned the wreaths and they were also entered into a contest. The objective: create a wreath that represents your business. I searched the Internet for ideas and saw a great sunburst wreath created from rolled up paper, so I decided to create one for What’s Up. I’m proud to say that the wreath won in the “Most Unusual” category!

I wrote a little 10-step tutorial in case you want to create one yourself.

Materials needed:

• Several magazines
• A 12” or smaller wire wreath frame
• Craft glue
• Cardboard
• Scissors
• pop-up adhesive dots
• Patience

1.     Grab a mag. Separate pages from the magazine. If there is a ragged edge, trim it. You need a lot of magazine pages to create this wreath, and after doing this, I learned that pages with a color border create some of the most interesting roll ups.

2.     Start with one page and dab some glue in the corner and start rolling at the other corner on a diagonal. I used a pencil to help roll it a little more tightly and easily. However, don’t roll it so tightly that you can’t get the pencil out with a quick shake. (If you can’t get the pencil out: poke it with a skewer or stir stick, and next time, don’t roll it so tightly.)

3.     Make a lot of these. A lot.

4.   Take a break (you will want one) to cut a large circle out of  cardboard (no pic, sorry). You want this circle to about an inch less than the circumference of the outside of the wire frame. Once you have the circle, cut out the center to form a cardboard wreath. Set this aside and start rolling more pages.

5.   One at a time slide the rolled up magazine pages into and under the wire wreath frame. Put a dab of glue on top to hold in place.

7.     Once you’ve completed the entire circle, glue the cardboard wreath on top of all the attached rolled up magazines to hide the way you attached them. (Sorry forgot to photograph this part).

8.     Then, glue the rest of your rolled up magazines on top of the cardboard wreath forming a “second level” of wreath. Fill in any spaces with rolled up pages.

9.    To hide any blemishes (I crushed a few of my roll ups) and create interest, you can make flowers from the magazine cover. (Covers are sturdier and easier to work with.) I chose to use the masthead to create my flowers (and market the magazine). 

I cut three shapes per flower – they were all exactly the same size and shape. (I did this freehand.) I curled the flower ends by rolling them around a pencil. Using “pop-up adhesive dots,” I layered the three flower shapes and added a circle for the center. Tip: you can also use a button or large bead for the flower center.

10. Attach the flowers to the wreath with glue. Ta da! It’s done.

Takes patience, but it’s pretty cool when it’s finished.  Any questions? Just leave me a comment or shoot me an email. I'm linking to: