Hopeful Homemaker

After making my first book page wreath, I made a second one while showing some friends how to do it.  If you’d like to try it, you can find my tutorial here .

It was so interesting to see how different the colors turned out simply by using a different book.

One thing led to another, and I made four just to demonstrate how the book you choose will influence the final product.

The first one I made is from a dictionary, purchased at the dollar store.  The paper is a newsprint kind of page.  You can see how it’s more grey in color than it is white.


The book was approximately 5 x 8 inches in size, so the wreath turned out a lot more full.  The pages were also very thin, so the rolls in the paper are softer.


The second book wreath I made came from a falling apart murder mystery I picked up at the thrift store.  It was more like 4 x 6 inches in size, and the pages were yellowed with age.  This also meant that they were more stiff.


The final product was smaller in size when I finished, due to the smaller pages.  It wasn’t as full, but was still pretty.  I liked how it took on more of a brown tone instead of a gray one.


Intrigued, I went back to the thrift store and found a small book, about 3 x 5 inches in size, but with crisp white pages and bold black print along with some small black and white illustrations on each page.  I was curious how “black and white” it would look.


This wreath was definitely the lightest in color, as well as the smallest in size.  It’s really fun to look at, though, because the pages I used were so interesting due to changes in font size and tiny illustrations on every page.


On the last two wreaths I made, I tore some pages into strips and glued them around the foam wreath so you wouldn’t see any Styrofoam in the finished product.


The last book I used was chosen for it’s creamy white pages and the red ink on the edge of the pages.  The red didn’t go all the way around the outer edges of the book, so I bought a good tomato red acrylic paint to match and painted the other two sides.  I was really generous with the paint because I wanted to be able to see the red.  Like my first project, this book was about 5 x 8 inches, so it turned out really full.


I love the red edges!


You could use so many other pages, as well!  What about an atlas?  I think that a blue colored steno notepad could also be really fun.   When we think about books, we tend to think of them all as being pretty much the same inside, as far as color goes.  Yet it is so interesting to see the subtleties in color changes when they’re used next to each other in a project like this.

The one in my family room enjoyed a red ribbon and a bird for the holidays.


I hung one on my laundry room door for fun, since it’s at the end of a hallway and I like to make it pleasant for myself to visit my laundry room (this increases the chances for clean clothes at our house).


I like all four of these wreaths for different reasons, and in different places.  The question I have is, which one is your favorite?


If you haven’t made one yet, I really hope you’ll try it.  And I’d love to hear your what kind of book you use, too.


Lest you think that it would be a waste if you decided you don’t like it, just give it to your 9 year old son and see what he does:




Just wanted to make you smile.  Have a great day!