DIY Paper Halloween Wreath

Last October I guest posted over at Clean & Scentsible sharing my DIY Paper Halloween Wreath. For those of you who missed it, I’m re-posting here today. These wreaths are so quick and simple to make – you can literally put one together in half an hour!

Here's what you'll need:

• 12 inch Styrofoam wreath form
• Two 12 x 12 sheets of Halloween paper (double sided if you want extra pattern variety)
• Halloween ribbon
• Tissue paper
• Halloween stickers
• Paper cutter or scissors
• Stapler
• Pipe cleaners

Except for the paper, I had all of this stuff in my crafting stash so hopefully you will too!

Start by cutting your paper into 1 1/2 by 6 inch strips. If you're using double sided paper you can flip half your strips over so that you end up with 4 piles of different patterns. If you're using single sided you can stick with 2 patterns or just cut only half of 4 different sheets.

Next, start wrapping strips around your wreath form, one at a time, overlapping them slightly and stapling them at the back. Don't worry about how the back looks, just make sure everything is lined up nicely at the front of the wreath. Keep stapling on strips until your wreath is completely covered. Don't worry if things don't line up exactly right on the last strip as you'll be covering that spot with ribbon. Here's the front and back of my finished wreath.

The next step is making the tissue paper flowers. You need 8 squares of tissue paper - the bigger the squares the larger your flower will be so consider the size of your wreath when cutting your squares. Pile the squares on top of each other and fold them like an accordion. When you've finished, twist a pipe cleaner around the centre to secure your folds.

Using scissors, cut the ends of both sides of your folded tissue into points. You can cut rounded edges for pretty flowers as well but I think the spiky kind look a bit more spooky!

Now spread your accordion out and start pulling the layers of tissue away from each other.When all the layers are separated, adjust them so that there is a flat back to your flower - that's the side with the pipe cleaner tails. Use the pipe cleaner to affix the flower to your wreath or you can hot glue it on. Repeat this process until you have as many flowers as you'd like. I only made two for my wreath because I didn't want to cover up too much of the paper. Once your flowers are in place, stick some Halloween stickers on to them.

The last step is to tie some ribbon around the top of your wreath for hanging and you're done! Wasn't that easy? You can use this same idea to make wreaths for all kinds of holidays - just switch the theme and colours of your paper, tissue and embellishments. I made one for Valentine’s Day a couple of years back and I think I’ll do a Christmas version this year!