“Previously, on The Hills on the modern wreath adventure…”, after finding this inspiration in an old issue of Pack-O-Fun magazine, I set out to create a wreath using rolled up pieces of magazines. After rolling up about 70-100 rolls, I cut out the frame out of a thin piece of cardboard. Mistake number one. I highly suggest using a thicker piece of cardboard, or even use a piece of foam core. The cardboard I used was pretty thin- thinner than say a standard shipping box. The reason is that if you use regular white craft glue, the whole thing actually gets kind of heavy until it dries. And then the piece ends up a little flimsy. Anyway- more on that later. So then I put a few swirls of glue down and started putting down my rolls. I picked a middle point and started to lay them one after the other. Mistake number two. I noticed in the picture that there were little gaps in between each roll- but did I pay attention to that as I was laying them down? of course not! 
I soon realized that simply laying the rolls side by side was not going to create the circular wreath shape. Luckily white craft glue takes awhile to dry, so I could still move things around. I quickly repositioned the rolls. My suggestion is to start by placing the rolls as you would a clock. Put down the 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 9 o’clock positions first. then start filling in the middle of each section and so forth until everything gets filled. This will give you an easy way to place them in right angles and positions. After I placed all the rolls, I let it dry overnight. The next morning was when i discovered how flimsy it was and how I should have used a thicker piece of cardboard. I then had the bright idea to glue a second thicker piece of cardboard to the existing frame to reinforce it. Mistake number three. I should have placed some books on top when I glued the second frame layer. Instead, the whole thing warped.
I tried to place books on it to flatten it up afterwards, but it never fully flattened and still remains a bit… warped. but overall it still looked ok. Oh- Mistake number four- I mentioned originally I used double stick tape in lieu of glue to keep the rolls together. Well, after awhile, some of the tape started to come up and I couldn’t keep them down. You’ll notice it if you look closely in the final photos. I’d probably use a glue stick or something other than tape.
Finally I spray painted the whole thing a shiny gold. The same gold that I used to spray the inside of the pot I posted about the other day. It looked fine, but with just the rolls, the piece felt like it was missing something. In the original example, they had a secondary ring of smaller rolls on top. I didn’t like that look, but I did think it needed another layer. So, I went back to the other inspiration, the one that the fabulous Mid Century Modern Utah did- using yarn and a little bird. I used the leftover inside bit of the cardboard and created another ring. I used the left over yarn I had when I made my ornaments from last year, and wrapped around the ring. I then found a pretty glittery bird from Michaels for $4.99 and voila! 
a new modern wreath for Christmas 2008! Overall, this was a pretty easy project to do. And since i already had all the existing materials, the only thing I had to pay for was the spray paint and the bird. So the total was about $10. 
I opted to keep the wreath inside, since the weather has been a bit unpredictable lately, but it looks great on the back of my front door, which also is conveniently painted grey!
The last thing I need to do for my holiday decorating is do some sort of centerpiece for the dining room table. Stay tuned for the final wrap up this weekend…