Fall Wreath and Book Page Flower Tutorial

On a whim, I decided to make a fall wreath the other night.  When I say, "on a whim," I'm not kidding.  It was almost 11 p.m.  Suddenly the creative juices started flowing and I just HAD to make a wreath.  The kids were in bed, Gary was out of town, so my challenge to myself was to use only what I had on hand since there would be no running to the craft store for supplies.  Not that any are open at that time of night.

What do you think?

I started with a straw wreath that I got for $.99 at Goodwill at their Saturday half price sale. Score!  Seriously, shop there for anything crafty.  I think it's where all abandoned craft supplies go to die.

I wrapped it with left over strips of burlap I had laying around.  I hot glued on a tiny twig with acorns still attached, along with a bunch of loose acorns that we found on a recent road trip to Kansas.

Okay, how cute are acorns?  I love them.  I actually took apart each acorn and hot glued the cap back on.  It sounds silly, but they fall apart easily, especially as they dry out.  We'll see how long they stay on there given the addition of recent rodents roaming our yard!

Next, I made some book page flowers, and voila!  A simple fall wreath that cost almost nothing.

Here's how I made the flowers:

Find an old book (or buy one at a thrift store or garage sale) and cut out lots of circles.  If you have a punch, it'll make it easier, but just wing it and cut out a bunch of free hand circles.  They don't have to be perfect, and you'll need various sizes.

Curl one edge of each circle just slightly by wrapping it around a shish-kabob skewer.

I used one of my circles as a base for my flower.  One at a time, add a dab of hot glue and start layering your circles, with the curled edge facing up along the outer edge.

50 points to the person who can tell me which book I cut apart.  And don't worry - I have multiple copies of this book.  I love it!  I should've used The 19th Wife.  I don't love that one.  Also, I didn't realize until I posted this picture that this particular petal has the word Christmas on it.  Odd for a fall wreath, don't you think?  Imperfect is my middle name.

Layer, layer, layer until you have a flower!  It doesn't need to be exact!

I love the texture and three-dimensional look of these little flowers.

For my wreath, I knotted a bit of jute and glued it in the middle.  It seemed like they needed a center, although they're pretty all on their own.  I tried using one of the acorn caps as the center of the flower, but decided I didn't have any acorns to spare.

I'm happy with how it turned out and think it's a sweet tribute to fall.  I think as the leaves start changing, I might add a few sprigs of autumn colored leaves here and there.

Happy wreath making!