Accordion-Fold Paper Wreath

Accordion-fold pleated paper Wreath
 with Fall leaves and Bible verses

and this is how I made it:

Beautiful book with beautiful pages-
from our local library book sale-
if you wait till the end -
they are $5 for whatever
 you can get into a large grocery bag

Been wanting to play with paper for a new wreath base and here is how it goes:  found a great book written in French with a great leather cover- (another project)  but loved the texture and coloring of the book pages.

Pages were about 5 inches
 so began by making 5 inch squares

Paper cutter and 5 inches

Accordion fold about one inch- just make 5 folds-
 didn't want it to be exact
 or use the Martha Stewart scorer

Fold some horizontal-
 and the ripped edges are just fine

I had a 12 inch wreath base from Paper Source
from a friend and took some of the same paper
 and used Mod Podge to cover the base
 so you don't have to be SOOO careful in trying to cover it all

could also cut out a circle-
about 1  1/2 inch wide out of heavy cardboard

  DO this early in your project time 

and it can be dry when
 you are ready to attach the paper folds

OK  back to the folding-

 just fold in half and secure inside

 with a small piece of double sided sticky tape

Make a PILE of these

Then take four of them
 (with insides already secured) and make a fan shape-
 securing with tape

There should be randomness to the writing
 and the blank paper.
Attach with glue gun-
 will need to push insides close
 and even overlapping and outside spaced-
  this is making something straight fit a circle-
so remember that takes some finesse

(photo shows wreath base before
 I decided it needed to be 
covered with the same paper)

also at the top of the wreath
make a jute hanger to hang
 it before putting on last pleat

used a leaf stencil to cut leaves
 from the same book pages

downloaded it from Martha Stewart

Painted them with 3 fall color combos-
still can see the writing through the paint-
 and I don't usually use my kitchen counter as a paint base
but it plopped out of the bottle when I squeezed-
 and when you have gold laminate----
 well nothing much matters there anymore)

Painted leaves

Took another leaf and Mod-Podged
 one to each painted leaf to give substance

Painted extra pages
 to use for the labels on the leaves

Made 5 sets of leaves

Had 2 printed Bible verses from another project
 and uses Distress ink on the edges
and attached them with tape-
 slightly rounded or raised for dimension

Another Bible verse leaf

Used Emboss ink for 2 stamps

GIVE THANKS

Used Gold embossing powder and heat set

Tear paper towards you
 to give the white edges for contrast

Another stamp- do the same

Count your Blessings

Hole punch top of leaf-
string with jute to make dangles-
 which are actually just hung
on the nail that holds the wreath-
this way the wreath base
 can work for multiple seasons-
 just make new
adornments

Overlapping and placement of leaves

This wreath had 35 accordion pleats with 4 pages each - so it took 140 pages of folded paper.

Trying to get a Sunny day to get a better photo of wreath- but Mr. Sun is just not cooperating.

Have fun with your wreath creation!!