Vintage Newspaper Wreath / Medallion

So you want to know how I made this stunner newspaper wreath on my mantel?

First off, I had loads and loads of help from my monkey #1 and some from my monkey #2.

Be sure to involve your little ones on this project, will make for a  quicker and fun end result.

Materials

Vintage Newspaper or any paper even maps that you have – I used 16 sheets (by that I mean 4 pages if you count the front and back) for the big circle, 8 sheets folded in half length wise for the middle round, and 4 half sheets where the fan crease was along the breadth and folded in half. The amount you need will depend on the size of the newspaper wreath you plan on making. Mine is around 44 inches in diameter.

Staples

2 Posterboard circles the size of your palm or just cut out circles from paper plates

1 large cardboard piece if you are using newspaper. For maps you can get away with poster board as they are made of thicker paper.

Hot glue gun

To hang – wire and Command hook

Tutorial

•  Start with the biggest round. Make paper fans where the folds are about an inch wide along the length as in the above picture.
• Arrange them in a circle. This will give you an idea of which side of the paper looks better in conjunction with the other pieces. You know maybe there are ads or pics that will stand out so much that it will be a distraction?

• Do the same for the middle round. I folded these sheets in half once I made the fan ‘coz that length worked for me. For the smallest round I used half sheets where the fan crease was along the breadth and then folded those in half. Arrange on top of each other. Don’t be afraid to move things around, fluff the creases etc.

• Once you like your arrangement, separate the others and start working on the biggest round. Bunch up the center edge of each piece and staple.

• Arrange you paper fans in a circle and staple each fan together on the outside end. I stapled only once as I knew I was going to use a large cardboard that would support the middle as a backing. You can see the staples in this pic.

• Now be extra careful and turn it upside i.e. you want to hot glue your backing to the bottom side. So that side should be facing you now. You could just skip this step if your paper looks great on both the sides. Cut out a small poster board circle and hot glue it to your center. This will make sure that your center is nice and tight and doesn’t move. 

• Next center the large piece of cardboard and hot glue to the back. Forgot to take pics but I used the same cardboard from here.
• For the middle round I stapled the fans to each other at 2 places, one close to the center and the other next to the outer edge. Repeat the poster board circle step. This time I just cut my circle from a paper plate.

• For the smallest circle I just hot glued the centers of each fan to one another and stapled the edges. Hot glue each of the circles one on top of the other. 

• I used a command hook and a metal wire that I already had to hang the newspaper wreath over the fireplace.

And there you have it, my $0 cost fall project.

Wasn’t that easy peasy?

Who else is making it?