Here's a worthwhile project you can do in time for the Yuletide season: a Christmas wreath made of newspaper! The finished product looks really nice and people just won't believe you made it yourself.
For the first phase of this project, you will need some newspaper, paste, some scotch tape, and a piece of twine.
The first thing we need to do is establish the size of the wreath you want to do. I was ambitious at this stage and wanted one that was at least 10 inches in diameter on the inner circle. You can use wire as the basis for the circle but in this case I started out by folding some newspapers and overlapping and taping them together.
Then I started to roll pages into this rough circle to make it thicker, taping it in areas.
I discovered that rolling the paper over and over is not the way to go if you want your base to be think because it will take a rather long time. So I prepared some homemade paste and proceed with the papier mache process.
To make a big batch of paste, you will need regular flour and water. A ratio of 1 cup warm water to 2 heaping tablespoons of flour should do the trick. Mix it up in a pan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Soon enough, the mixture will boil and become gooey. Depending on how runny or how thick you want your paste to be, you can go with what you have or add a bit more flour.
I then crumpled newspapers and placed laid these on the inner part of the circle. I tore strips of paper, drenched it on paste, then started sticking the crumpled paper into the base.
Try to retain the circular shape as you do this, inserting crumpled paper and plastering over with strips in areas where it appears to be breaking into an edge so it will maintain its roundness.
Nearly there...
When I was satisfied with the shape I want, I let it bask in the sun to dry. It took me 3 hours to make the base. It was fun, and my son Jo-Lo also joined in the crumpling and tearing of the paper.
This is how it looked like the following day. Now, take a piece of twine, tie up the base and then create a loop. This is where you are eventually going to hook the wreath for display.
Here is a closer shot of the loop I made. Then, get some more strips of paper drenched with paste and plaster across the twine so that the loop will stay there and not slide into the top of the wreath when hanged.
Itutuloy...
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