After last winter, as I was taking down our front door’s wreath, I looked at the wire wreath frame and thought, “I’m sure I can use this for something.” So I kept it. Fast forward to a week ago when I was watching a video of a woman using packing paper to design a basket, and I had my “Ah-ha!” moment. Could I braid packing paper and make a wreath out of it?
This turned out to be very easy, a little sticky (because I over-glue everything), in the end really pretty, and basically free!!
Supplies:
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- Long strips of packing paper
- Hot glue and glue gun (I used 5 glue sticks)
- Wreath form
- Decorative ribbons, fake plants, flowers, etc.
Step 1: Cut strips of packing paper. My husband and I are always amused by how Amazon, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc. overpack our orders with way more packing paper and way bigger boxes than seem necessary. We are pretty good about recycling, but I happened to have a large amount of this packing paper in our garage, so I grabbed the 2 longest pieces and brought them inside.
First, I flattened them out on the floor. Then, I folded them lengthwise in thirds. This made it easier to cut even strips, using scissors to cut down each fold. This left me with 3 equally long pieces.
Now that I had my pieces, I squeezed each one back to being scrunched, more like paper rope.
Side note: About the length of your paper… The longer the better, but you could use shorter pieces too if that’s all you have. You’ll just end up tucking them in and glueing more often.
Step 2: Braid the paper “ropes.” I channeled my inner middle schooler and did this like I used to make friendship bracelets. I took each of the 3 ends and taped them to my counter, then began to braid the paper. I was worried that it might rip if I pulled my braid too tight, but it didn’t at all. I had to keep making sure the long ends weren’t getting too twisted up as I went, but that was easy enough.
When I was done, I took my hot glue gun and glued the braid together at the ends. For one end, I really mashed it up and made it as narrow as I could. This would be the end I would tuck into my wreath form to start. For the other end, I tried to make it a little more decorative, kind of like a bow, but I ended up not using that, so don’t worry about it. Just make sure you glue both ends to hold the braid together.
Step 3: Wrap the wreath form. Taking that narrow end, I shoved it between the prong-things and was glad to find that it held pretty well. You may need a string or something to hold it in place, or even glue it. Next, gently pressing the braid around the wreath form, I stretched it carefully all the way around. This part should be the sides of the wreath, not lying flat on top but rather around the sides.
Once I had the braid back where I started, I cut the braid there. Then I used my hot glue gun to hold the cut end in place, blending it into the existing braid where it met the other end.
I then took my second braid (created the same way as what I described before) and tucked the one end near the start of my first attached braid. I kind of wish I’d spaced these differently so I didn’t have an obvious narrower area, but it didn’t end up being too noticeable. Wherever you start your second braid, this is the one you’ll use to wrap around the topside of the wreath, facing up as you work. I again gently pressed the braid around the wreath form, only on top this time. Once I got all the way around, I again cut the end and glued it to blend into the start.
There was a gap between the first braid and the second that sat on top of it. This was fixed easily enough by going around with my glue gun and pressing the two braids together.
For my third, inner braid, I used the leftovers from my first braid. Taking the one end, I glued it against the other braids and then pressed the braid in place all the way around the inside of the wreath. Where it ended, I again glued. Then I quickly went around and glued this inner braid to the others where any gaps showed.
Again, how many strips/braids you use depends on the length of your paper. But basically, however many pieces of braids it takes, do an outside layer, a top layer, and an inner layer. OR, you could wrap the braid around the wreath form again and again as you go around – I bet that would look great too, though it would probably take a bit more paper. For my wreath, I like how it looks like a couple of connected braid rings.
Step 4: Decorate. Like I said, I had a narrow spot because of where I attached all the ends. But, since I wanted to add some decorations to my wreath, I knew my decorations could make this spot less noticeable. You could leave your wreath plain, because the braid itself is pretty. Or you could add ribbons, a big bow, fake birds – whatever!
I took a little strip of burlap and tied that on. Then, after hanging the wreath so I could see how I wanted it, I stuck little plastic plants into the braid.
I really like how this turned out. It’s thick because of the 3 layers of braids, and I can change the decorations depending on the season or holiday.
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