How to Make a Paper Wreath

Start with a solid extruded foam wreath form. Squeeze it: if it crunches and sheds little white beads, it is the wrong kind and pins will not hold in it. A 10-inch form needs about six sheets of 12x12 paper. Set out short flat-head pins alongside it, around three quarters of an inch long.

Run each sheet through a paper trimmer into long even strips. Even is what matters here, not exact, because a strip that tapers will curl lopsided and stand out on the finished wreath. Keep the width consistent across all six sheets and cut them all before you start curling. Batching the cutting saves you swapping between tools two hundred times.

Fan the cut strips out across your mat and group them by pattern. You are going to be grabbing these without looking for the next hour, so having the piles separated means you can alternate colours as you go instead of ending up with all the red in one quarter of the wreath.

Bring the two ends of a strip together to form a loop and pinch them between your fingers. Do not crease the fold at the top, because a sharp crease makes a flat teardrop instead of a round curl. If the paper is stiff, draw it over the edge of a bone folder first to soften it, the same way you would curl ribbon.

Hold a loop against the foam with both ends together and push a pin straight through both ends into the form. One pin holds one loop. Press it all the way down so the flat head sits against the paper. Start anywhere on the ring and work in one direction so you always have a clean edge to butt the next loop against.

Keep going around the ring, pushing each loop against the one before it and varying the angle so they do not all lean the same way. Cover the inner and outer edges of the form too, not only the top, or the wreath will look flat on the wall.

Check for white gaps as you go by holding it up at arm's length. Foam showing through is the one mistake that is genuinely annoying to fix later.

Cut an oval or a circle from coordinating cardstock for the middle of the wreath, then cut a slightly larger one in a second colour to sit behind it. Stamp or write on the top layer if you want a message. Keep it small: the curled paper is doing the work and a big centrepiece fights it.

Stack the label onto a paper doily, then onto a larger die-cut shape, gluing between each layer. Offsetting the layers slightly rather than centring them makes the stack look deliberate. Let the glue set before you pick the whole thing up, because doilies tear if you lift them by an edge.

Glue the finished embellishment onto the curled base, either across the middle or off to one side. Press and hold until it grabs. Give the whole wreath a last look from a few feet back for bare patches, push a few spare loops into any you find, and hang it from a ribbon looped through the back.