My partner hates the consumerism of Christmas, to the point that I’m lucky we even have a Christmas tree! To make up for that purchase however, I vowed to never spend money on any more Christmas related decorations – but to be somewhat sneaky and crafty, I realised I could still make decorations at no cost AND make them out of recyclable items.

So, here is my DIY Recyclable Paper Christmas Wreath which used items I already had in my home and I consider the cost to be zero! It’s also lots of fun!

DIY Recyclable Paper Christmas Wreath

Time: Approximately 1 hour (depending on size and skill)

What you’ll need

• A retro Christmas album to listen to (get this cranking straight away)
• A newspaper or magazine (that you’re willing to cut up)
• Thin cardboard (at the width you want your wreath) – cereal box cardboard is perfect!
• Scissors
• Stapler (and staples!)
• String or ribbon to hook the wreath – I used the ribbon ‘clothes hooks’ you cut off new clothes!

Instructions

Step One

Using a bowl or something round as a guide, draw a circle onto the cardboard and then another ring in the middle, then cut this ‘ring’ of cardboard out. (Note that the wreath will be slightly bigger than the piece of cardboard. Also take into consideration that if you choose a large wreath you will have difficulty stapling the scrolls to the cardboard) my wreath was only about 20cm in diameter.

Either using a punch-hole or scissors, put two holes in the cardboard for your string.

Either using a punch-hole or scissors, put two holes in the cardboard for your string.

Step Two

Now cut up your newspaper or magazine into squares. Ideally the squares should be at least 6cm x 6cm. I found that using a community newspaper, I was able to cut the paper into 3 x 4 pieces. I would recommend cutting only one page and figuring out how big the scrolls work out before cutting a pile of pages up!

Step Three

Now we need to create the scrolls. I found that folding a corner down and then rolling the paper created the easiest scroll to manage. You will want to create a ‘cone’ like effect (note the’top’ end is bigger than the ‘bottom’ end)

Step Four

Now comes the tricky part – you need to staple the scroll to the cardboard. Starting from the outer edge of the wreath, I recommend flattening the bottom end of the scroll first then getting the stapler in there. You’ll get into your own rhythm!

Step Five

When it comes to making your second row, try to place the new row in the middle of the first rows gaps (to try and minimise the gaps). You’ll notice the new row of scrolls won’t sit flat – that’s a good thing!

Step Six

When it comes to the final row in the center of the ring, you will need to make different scrolls. Roll the paper square from corner to corner (so you’re still creating that nice ‘pointy’ end) and then fold in two – ideally folding it off centre so one scroll sits higher than the other scroll.

Step Seven

Now staple these folded scrolls into the center, aligning them neatly with the edge of the cardboard (ideally you don’t want any cardboard showing). You’ll also be ideally covering up all the other scroll ends so place each center scroll right next to each other so it completely covers all gaps.

Step Eight

Then you should finish with a beautiful wreath! It’s quite amazing how beautiful something so simple can look! Especially something made out of newspaper and cardboard!

Best of all (especially if you have storage issues) you can quite easily put this in the recycling bin and make another one next year!
Have fun!