Paper Wreath and Garland Tutorial

You will need:

* Thin paper. I used paper squares bought from Chinatown – I love the unbleached colour of the paper with the vibrant orange and red, and the metallic gold. The photo doesn’t capture the vibrancy of the paper in this wreath. It really is beautiful. Alternatively you could used pages from an old paperback book, origami paper, or even squares of tissue paper.

* Cardboard to make the backing ring. I used ivory card, but as it will be hidden you could use any light weight cardboard.

* Scissors

* Stapler

* Pencil or pen

* Bowls or plates to trace around

* Blu Tac to hang your wreath

* Optional additional decorations, embellishments, ribbon to hang the wreath.

The directions to make this wreath are the same as my Paper Doily Wreath Tutorial. For this wreath I folded most of my paper with the printed design on the inside, but for variation I made some with the colour on the outside – maybe one in every 12 or so.

Even though the method is the same, his wreath looks quite different to the one I made of doilies because the paper is rectangular instead of round. I’ve seen wreaths made from book pages very similar to this selling in shops for a few hundred dollars. I can’t remember how much the Chinese paper is, but I would guess it would only be a few dollars for enough to make this wreath. And it’s easy. Give it a go.

I hope you enjoy making it. Email me photos!

The garland is so easy it hardly needs a tutorial… but here goes.

You’ll need squares/rectangles of paper, a needle and embroidery thread (or similar), decorative tape (I used Japanese washi paper tape).

Gather the paper squares from the centre like you did for the wreath. Thread the needle and pass it through the centre of a paper square.

Wrap a small piece of tape around the thread on the under side of the paper so it doesn’t pull through.

Wrap a small piece of tape around the centre top of the paper so it will keep its shape.

Repeat until you have your garland to the desired length.

Easy!

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