Spring Floral Paper Wreath

I have a ton of spare cardboard laying around, so I traced a circle out of it using a plate, and then traced another circle out of it, and cut it out with an exacto knife – leaving me with a cardboard ring to start a base for my floral wreath. I wanted to keep it a smaller, more manageable size, but you could definitely scale up or down depending on where you are intending to put it.

I picked out some colors of Curious Metallic card stock in green shades (there is a darker green called Botanic as well as a pale green called Lime) as well as Nude (a very shiny tannish color) for a bit of contrast. I went to town cutting out leaf shapes by hand, while my Silhouette Portrait digitally cut out some petal/flower shapes using the Violette and Shadow card stocks.

As each leaf shape was cut out, I used a bone folder to score a line down the center and the veins for each side of the leaf. For the leaves that had multiples that split off into sections, I bent them up or scored the paper to help me bend them, so the leaves appeared a bit more life-like.

While I was not trying for realism, it was nice to have that effect. Especially as the paper is metallic, so scoring/bending it is even more effective than if it were matte – it helps to catch the light.

The flowers were simple geometric shapes that I designed on the computer and cut out using my Silhouette Portrait. I then used the body of a pencil to shape the leaves so they curled up and stacked/glued them together.

Before I arranged all the flowers and leaves on the wreath, I knew some of the cardboard would show through, and I wanted to embrace the texture – so I grabbed some Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and swiped it across the whole ring, using a foam dabber when necessary to blend. I then distressed the look by throwing water on top and blotting, which created a stained effect.

I used Aleene’s Tacky Glue to attach each piece, using an awareness of visual balance to help me determine where to add more color or foliage. While it may have taken a while to do all the work up front, it took a matter of minutes to bring it all together.

For finishing touches, I used a white paint pen by Molotow to add highlights in the middle of each flower and to signify some folds in the flower petals.

You could easily punch a hole in the top to thread some twine for hanging. I decided to put mine on a narrow hallway closet and used some strong tape to adhere it.