Vintage Book Wreaths - a Fun Decoration for AFTER Christmas

by Jennifer Allwood

It's that awkward time of the decorating year where you want to take down your Christmas decor, but it's way too early for spring. What's a girl to do??? My glittered book wreath project is perfect for your front door or on your mantel! It's still winter looking without looking like the holidays!

vintage book wreaths a fun decoration for after christmas, crafts, wreaths

A few of my girlfriends and I had a Girls Night Out to make glittered vintage book wreaths. Ok, so it was a Sunday afternoon out, but whose keeping track really? Lol

This project is a lot of bang for your buck. It’s not a ton of money or time and the wreaths are BIG!!!!!! I like BIG! So, I totally, totally recommend a girl’s craft night to do this! I made 2 in about 5 hours and it was worth every second!

We started with an old book that my friend Samantha purchased at a thrift store. The pages weren’t white-white which is exactly what we were wanting! Another idea would be to use old sheet music or use one with white-white pages for a “snow” themed wreath. Love.

It took us a minute to figure out how to roll the pages. I’m what you call an “impatient crafter” or “lazy crafter” if you will. I want to get from point A to point B quickly, so I got in a “rolling” rhythm quickly. In retrospect, the tightness of the roll TOTALLY determines the look. I kind of wish that I had rolled mine slightly tighter so the cones were skinnier. But, it’s all good.

So start rolling pages. And THEN roll more pages. And more. And then more after that. You have to roll ALOT of pages, an estimated 120 per wreath (did anyone just pass out?)

We used a craft glue stick to glue the sides and bottom corner over. You could hot glue too, but hot glue guns and I tend to scuffle a bit, so a glue stick was my glue of choice!

You probably SHOULD wait until that glue is all set and lovely and whatever, but again….the impatient crafter in me took over and I didn’t wait long before I was ITCHHHHHHHHING to glitter the tips. I dumped Mod Podge on a paper plate and dipped the edges of my rolls in the glue. The glue will go on thicker and thinner in spots and that’s ok. Remember perfection is for calculus, not for crafts.

After glueing your tips, immediately dip the rolls in another plate with your glitter. I used silver glitter for my wreath because in addition to be an “impatient crafter” I am also a forgetful one and forgot my GOLD glitter. Ug. I borrowed Samantha’s silver glitter which turned out amazing, but my plan had been to use the gold and I think GOLD on VINTAGE pages would look dynamite. Food for thought.

I wanted to show you a closeup of the glitter. See….perfectly imperfect. Just get it done =) No one will closely inspect it.

So after rolling, gluing them closed, tipping the ends with glue and glittering all 1,286,548 cones…..it’s time to lay out your wreath. We used a piece of white foamboard from Hobby Lobby. They come in like rectangle sheets approx. 8.5 x 11, already that size and 2 pieces in a pack.

It’s important that you lay out the OUTSIDE ring of cones and stack the next layer a bit to be sure you like how big/small it is before you start glueing them on. Also, this is a great time to be sure your circle-making skills are up to par. We don’t want any egg-shaped wreaths being made for the holidays, but let’s rethink that idea come Easter, ok? Ha!

After determining the ring looks like you want, start one by one picking up the cones and hot glueing them to the foamboard. (note in this picture that we had seen someone suggest to staple the tips and then glue the tips down, but we got lazy and couldn’t see the point in the staple, so eventually skipped it!)

After the outer, bottom ring is done, start the inner circle and hot gluing those on to the top of the bottom ring. I got that 2nd layer done and saw that my friend Riki had used a SMALLER book for her inner, inner circle to make smaller cones and I loved

that idea, so was totally a copy-cat. But NOTE: we wanted our wreaths to be all one color, so we had to be sure the smaller book pages were the same color as the bigger book pages. It could look kind of cool however if you used a ring of colored pages for the middle??? An idea for someone!

These cones for the inner ring were substantially smaller and fun to stack on! They were like the little mini ice cream cones at Baskin Robbins. Ha!

When all finished, I remembered that I should have put a hole in the foamboard to hang it from. Oopsy daisy. THIS is the reality of crafting! So, I used a letter opener to poke thru the foamboard and ran jute thru it so I can hang it on a wreath hanger.

You can see the hole by my thumb that I ran the jute through to hang it.

I hot glued a Hobby Lobby Christmas ornament to the middle and called that baby d-u-n…..done! The ornament is a snowflake, so it doesn't look too Christmas-y to me after the holidays.

You could also use a picture in the middle. Or a piece of Velcro and a fall thing on the middle and then change the middle out for the different seasons.

You could use also use a monogram or a chalkboard in the middle. The possibilities are endless!

And I am seriously IN LOVE with this project.

It was so fun to see how different each of ours turned out! You can see me on the end. Next to me is Riki who did her cones “tighter” so they look long and lean….every woman’s dream. Micayla didn’t put anything on the middle yet and she opted out of the glitter action. Consequently, we are no longer friends. Ha. JK. But seriously, how can one opt out on glitter???? And on the other end was our crafting host Samantha who wrapped her cones tighter yet and “inked” the edges of the cones

instead of glittering. They were all so pretty!

Then one of my FB fans named Wendy Nelson messaged me this pic of the crafting party they had based on my blog post. Seriousssssssssssss pretty stuff going on here too! Aren’t those amazing???

So, grab a group of girls and get your craft on together. It’s so, so much fun to do this sort of thing as great girl time.

If you've enjoyed this post, I'd love for you to sign up for my project emails at www.themagicbrushinc.com . I send you weekly ideas on decorating, crafting and painting.

Also search for "Jennifer Allwood" on Facebook to follow all of my DIY antics.

And ps… I have an idea…..someone needs to make one of these book wreaths with a comic book!!!!! IMAGINE the fun colors!)

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Cynthia Calhoun on Jun 27, 2017

Just too adorable! Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing...

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Christina Hatten Sumrall on Nov 13, 2019

I think this amazing. What size books did you use? I love yours the most! Just a side note: If trying to make a perfect circle in the middle, I usually use a cup, saucer or plate as my guide. I just lightly pencil the edge like a stencil. Again I appreciate you sharing this.

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Susie on Dec 07, 2019

Love the glitter! Did you just go with the size of the book pages, then go smaller with the ones in the middle? Also, have seen it done w/ round pizza box backing, rather than square foam core, but, hey, whatever works!!!:)

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Pam on Feb 05, 2020

OMGoodness!! Going to have a finger food, craft party and make these for all of my children's houses. I love this idea and it is beautiful!

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Jolene-fujan on Aug 29, 2020

Looks like a fun Sista Craft...if I can ever get her to come to my place!

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