Upcycled Road Map Fall Wreath

4 Materials
$5
2 Hours
Easy

Every day I walk my dog in the park and I watch the seasons change through out the year. Obviously now it being autumn there are a lot of leaves blowing about in the wind. We have a lot of oak trees in the park and I thought it would be fun to make an oak leave wreath for my front door. I have a collection of old road maps at home and some of them are in lovely earthy colours so I thought they would be great to upcycle for this wreath. Especially as the roads on the map look like the veins on a leaf. This is not the first time I've used maps for a door decoration, I've made giant door rosettes which you can see here.

Old road maps are great to craft with as they are often printed on good quality paper. Some of the paper is woven and linen like. You can pick old road maps up very cheaply from thrift shops.


However, I often find elderly relatives have a stash of old road maps that they are willing to part with.

I also used brown paper, felt (or felt balls), wire and glue for this DIY.

This first thing to do is to draw out an oak leaf template. If you aren't comfortable drawing your own, there is a free one to download on the blog post at the end.


I used this template to draw around and cut out lots of leaves from the old road maps. I used parts of the map that were in greens and browns. Rural maps are good for this.

To make acorns to go with the leaves. First I made some acorn nuts out of wool felt. Or you can just buy some felt balls from your local craft store.

To create a case for the felt acorn I wrapped it in brown paper. I made a stem by wrapping the wire in brown paper. Then both were glued together.

The map leaves were scored to give a 3D effect. See the blog for more details.

I then glued 2 acorns and 2 leaves together, slightly overlapping.

Next, I covered the polystyrene ring in brown paper.

Then I stuck the leaves to the paper covered ring using Gorilla Glue mounting squares.

Carry on sticking leaves until the whole wreath is covered in map acorn leaves.

I love to craft and upcycle with old road maps. If you want some more ideas for uses of road maps you should check out my ideas here. If any take your fancy just click on the pictures.

Resources for this project:
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Claire at Pillarboxblue
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  2 questions
  • Veronica Veronica on Oct 15, 2019

    I have a ton of real acorns around my house. If I added a longer ‘tail’ to them, do you think it would look alright? The handmade acorns are so cute!

  • Denise A Romano Denise A Romano on Nov 05, 2019

    Why are you encouraging the use of styrofoam that needs to be purchased?

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  • Lisa Sinclair Lisa Sinclair on Oct 20, 2019

    What a great idea! I love the idea abt the childrens handprints ( in an above comment). I used old books, and felt, to make leaves for a fall garland/ tree decorations.

  • Diane Diane on Nov 10, 2019

    I love your wreath. I love to take road trips and have adventures, this wreath was made for me. I think I will make one and have it inside year-round! Thanks for the idea! ❤️🚙❤️

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