Several years ago at the Country Living Fair in Atlanta, I saw for the very first time — and fell in love with — the beautiful hymnal wreaths. Unfortunately, these wreaths were priced around $80 to $100.
So being the thrifty shopper that I am, I admired them and walked on. Then after seeing them on Pinterest, I decided to make my own. The only problem was all the hymnal wreaths I liked were actually pinned from Etsy, so there were no tutorials. After searching a bit, I found a few “how-to’s” which I combined into this Hymnal Wreath Tutorial:
If you’d like to make one too, you will need:
- an old hymnal (or other book)
- an x-acto knife (or a good pair of scissors)
- a piece of cardboard (or other wreath form)
- your choice of a centerpiece
- glue (I used “tacky” glue)
- glue gun and glue sticks
- ribbon
I already had a few old hymnals on hand to use for various mixed media projects, so while my husband, my daughter and I watched an English period piece, I started cutting, rolling and gluing.
With an x-acto knife, I cut approximately 50 pages out of one of the hymnals.
Then, using an 8-inch salad plate as a template, I cut out a cardboard form for the wreath.
I hot-glued my ribbon to the cardboard form before gluing on the hymnal pages (not pictured).
Note: Some tutorials suggest using hot-glue to form the page rolls, but I prefer “tacky glue” for this task. It’s fast-drying and, best of all, it doesn’t burn your fingertips!
**UPDATE: After making dozens of these wreaths, I’ve quit using the tacky glue & have begun simply stapling the bottom (not pictured) after rolling the page. This goes so much quicker, and the staples are covered up by the next layers.
Using a cotton swab, I ran a thin line of glue along the bottom of each hymnal page.
Then I rolled the page into a “loose” cone shape making sure the glue-y bottom held it in place.
After getting all my pages rolled, I then used a glue gun to secure each one in place on the cardboard form.
At first, I made 3 rows of pages, filling in the gaps in between as I went along and thought I was done. But then decided to add a fourth row of smaller pages (I simply cut down the base of these pages) and fit them in around the center.
I couldn’t make up my mind as to what I wanted for the centerpiece at first, or if I wanted to leave it as-is. I tried a few coffee filter roses, but decided against them.
My mother recommended a burlap rosette (but I didn’t have any burlap on hand). So, ultimately I chose to use my grandmother’s antique brooch (the pin on back was broken) glued to more hymnal pages.
For this part, I took two pages, cut them in half (four squares altogether) and folded them accordion style, glued the edges together, then trimmed them to fit the inside space.
I glued the brooch on top of it and attached them to the center of the the wreath with hot glue.
I was quite pleased with the end result!
Don’t forget to sign you & your kids (tweens & teens too) up for my mixed media art workshop, Winter Wonderland, where we will create beautiful winter-themed works of art, as well as simple Christmas decorations and gifts to give. Click on the image for more info.
