Crafting

How To Make A DIY Book Page Wreath (And How To Buy)

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Christine Hoxmeier

Staff Writer

Christine Hoxmeier can usually be found hard at work in her beloved home of Austin with a cup of coffee in one hand and a taco in the other. She spends her free time reading, writing, and dreaming of a teleportation device so she can visit her friends spread across the globe on a daily basis. If it were possible to live inside one Disneyland attraction for the rest of her life, Christine would cheat and choose to split her time between It's A Small World and The Enchanted Tiki Room. She prefers to communicate in CAPSLOCK and with gifs. Twitter: @aramblingfancy

As the year winds down, festive wreaths can be found adorning the doors in our neighborhoods. But who said wreaths were only made for November and December? Wreaths are for year-round decoration and can be made from whatever suits your fancy. And since we are book people, it only makes sense that we have a book page wreath on our doors. Follow along as we walk you through a DIY book page wreath step-by-step guide (or scroll to the end to see where you can buy one).

How to Make A Book Page Wreath

There are quite a few ways you could go about making your own book page wreath, but here is a good beginner’s guideline, using supplies you probably have around your house.

A book page wreath hanging on a door

What You Will Need

  • Cardboard or foam core board
  • An old or unwanted book
  • Pencil or marker
  • Ruler or circle compass
  • Regular glue
  • Hot glue gun or glue sticks
  • Sharp craft knife or boxcutter or scissors
  • Ribbon or pipe cleaners (optional)
  • Spray paint (optional)

A picture of supplies needed for your book page wreath

Step 1: Trace Your Wreath Base

The beauty of making your own book page wreath is you are not beholden to make it any particular size. Want a giant one? You can do that! Need a tiny wreath for wall decoration? Easy peasy. If you have a wreath the size you want, measure the base of that to figure out your dimensions.

For this particular wreath, I made my base 12″ in diameter. Depending on the size you choose, you can use a plate or bowl to trace a circle the same size or use a circle compass if you happen to have one of those lying around. I didn’t have either, so I grabbed a ruler and drew my own circle, which I will walk you through in case you need to do the same.

First, make a mark in the center of your cardboard (you can even use a clean pizza box!). Place your ruler on your center mark, measure half of your desired diameter, and mark the edge. Pivot your ruler, make another mark, and repeat the process until you’ve got a dashed circle. I used a quilting ruler, so it’s a bit easier to see through and make my dash marks.

Drawing dashes on cardboard with a ruler

Once you’ve got your dashed circle, use your pencil to connect the dashes and smooth out your circle.

A picture of a hand holding a pencil, drawing a circle

Repeat this process to draw your inner circle. At first, I thought a 2″ base would be fine, but decided 2 1/2″ would be better. If you want a book page wreath with more than three layers, you’ll want a 2 1/2–3 1/2″ base.

Circles drawn on a piece of cardboard

Step 2: Cut Out the Wreath Base

Using a sharp craft knife, cut out your circles! You can use scissors in a pinch, but my X-Acto knife made quick work of the curves on the cardboard.

Picture of a hand holding a craft knife cutting out a cardboard circle

Voila! You’ve got your wreath base. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfectly cut out or exactly symmetrical, this will all be hidden.

Picture of a cut out cardboard wreath

Step 3: Glue Your Pages Into Cones

How you choose to remove your pages from your book is up to you. I’m fond of ripping a signature entirely out and tearing the pages with a ruler. You can also use a craft knife and cut into the spine and remove pages that way. However you do it, you’ll want a large pile of pages ready to go.

Please note, I did not trim my book pages at all. If you want less blank space and more words on display, use scissors or a paper trimmer and trim off the page margins! I also didn’t mind if some edges were roughly torn, but if you prefer a clean look, be sure to trim the edges of any pages torn out.

Once you’ve got your pages cut out, it’s time to roll and glue them into cones. This is the most time consuming part, so settle in with an audiobook and get ready to glue glue glue!

To make the page cones, I found it easiest to hold opposite page corners and twist/roll towards each other…

Picture of a dictionary page being rolled into a cone

…until you get a paper cone with a nice outer point!

Picture of a hand holding a rolled up dictionary page in the shape of a cone

Holding your rolled cone in one hand, flip back a bit of the outer rolled page, place a small amount of glue (I used regular school glue, but you can use a hot glue gun if you super love hot glue guns) along the edge, roll back into place and press it closed.

Picture of glue bottle with paper cone, one edge slightly unrolled, with glue on the corner

It may take you a few tries to get into a rhythm, but once you’ve figured out how to roll and glue, the cone making goes pretty quickly! You’ll want to make several different sizes of page cones: some rolled loose so you have a wider opening, and then others rolled tighter with smaller openings. For my wreath, I used 19 large, 19 medium, and 18 small cones, but the number you need will vary on the size of your wreath and the book pages being used.

A picture of 3 dictionary pages rolled into cones in 3 different sizes

Step 4: Glue Your Outer Layer

Start with your larger paper cones/petals, and use a hot glue gun to glue down the outer layer. You can play with how far out you want the pages to extend, just make sure you are leaving space between the cones so your next layer has a place to go.

A picture of a glue gun and book page cones adhered to cardboard wreath

Like so! Repeat this until you circle back to your first cone.

A picture of a hand placing a book page cone on a cardboard wreath

Step 5: Glue Down the Other Layer(s)

Using your medium sized cones, glue down the next layer of your book page wreath. Make sure the cones are nestled on top of and in between the outer layer, and remember to keep them spaced out as you did with the first layer.

A picture of a hand placing a book page cone on a cardboard wreath  with a glue gun

Tip: You don’t need a lot of hot glue! A small dot or a simple line is all you need to secure your book page cones.

A picture of a hand placing a book page cone on a cardboard wreath with a small dot of hot glue

Repeat the layering process, using smaller and smaller sized cones, until you reach your desired look and only have the final inner layer remaining.

Step 5b: Trim the Paper Edges

This isn’t a necessary step, but before I glued down my last layer, I trimmed the paper from the inside edge of my wreath to keep the bulk down.

A picture of a book page wreath with two layers and untrimmed edges

A super quick trim job with scissors to clean up those layers of paper cones.

A close up picture of a book page wreath with two layers and trimmed edges

Step 6: Glue Your Final Layer

You are a hot glue machine and have made it to your final layer, yay! Grab the smallest of your book page cones, and begin to glue them down as before.

A picture of a hand placing a book page cone on a cardboard wreath

To finish off your wreath, flip it to the backside, fold the ends of the cones around the inner edge and glue them down on the back. You can choose to glue down your entire final layer before this last step, but I decided to do it as I went, flipping over after every 3-4 cones.

A picture of a hand hot gluing the back of a book page wreath

Step 7: Admire Your Finished Book Page Wreath

Ta da! You’ve made your very own book page wreath!

A picture of a finished book page wreath laying on the floor

Step 8 (Optional): Create a Hanger

Using a pipe cleaner or ribbon (or similar thing you have around your house), create a small loop to use as a hanger and hot glue this to the back of your wreath.

A close up picture of the back of the wreath with a loop of ribbon glued down

You’ll notice in the picture above, the back is unfinished. Now this works fine for me, no one is going to see it. But if you have a glass door or are making one to give as a gift, you could easily make it look a little more finished with the following options:

  • Cut a piece of felt or fabric to fit your wreath and hot glue it down to the back.
  • You could also cut an identical piece of cardboard, spray paint it, and glue to the back.
  • Decoupage the bits of exposed cardboard with book pages!

Book Page Wreath Variant Options

If you like the look of the wreath you’ve made but think it needs a pop of color, spray paint it! You could play around with spray painting the various layers different colors, or spray the edges with a bit of metallic gold or silver paint for a fun variant.

A picture of a book page wreath spray painted red hanging on a door
Close up picture of book pages spray painted red

If you want a wreath with more of a full dahlia look, that is super easy to do. You’ll use the same techniques to make your paper cones and glue them down in layers, but your base will be a bit different.

Start with a square piece of cardboard or foam cord board. Trace a circle in the middle (this one is about 9″ in diameter), and another circle about 1″ smaller inside your first circle.

Picture of square piece of cardboard with two circles drawn in the middle

Glue down your book page cones as in step 4, lining up the end of the cones with the smaller inner circle. Glue down your additional layers as above in step 5, until you reach your desired fullness.

A picture of a finished book page dahlia wreath

You can fill up the entire space with cones and create a full flower, or you can leave a bit of the center empty, and finish it off with a circle cut out of a book page as I did above. You could also fill the center with pinecones, dried or silk flowers, or ornaments (a great way to reuse broken ornaments)—all you need is some hot glue!

Where to Buy A Ready-Made Book Page Wreath

If you like the idea of a wreath made from vintage book pages but don’t feel like making your own, you can buy one Etsy! A few sellers even offer custom made options from specific books or you can send them a book of your choosing!

Picture of book page wreath against vintage window shades

The shape of of this 10″ vintage book page wreath is especially cute. $21

Dahlia book page wreath against wooden floorboards

This is a beautiful example of a paper dahlia. $35

Paper dahlia with silk flower centerpiece

A lovely book page wreath with floral centerpiece. $38

Picture of vintage book page wreath against china cabinet

This gorgeous book page wreath is made from vintage Christmas books. $80

Picture of scrunched paper wreath against wood planks

I love the shapes in this Jane Austen book wreath. $72.50

Picture of wreath made from book pages cut in the shape of magnolia leaves

I’m very into this book page wreath with magnolia leaves. $49


Do you have other unwanted books in need of a craft project? Try one of these 30 DIY crafts with old books or learn how to hollow out a book!