How to make a summer wreath

Welcome summer with this gorgeous papercraft wreath, designed by Sharon Callis!

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Published: May 11, 2021 at 7:57 am

Make this stunning summer wreath, designed by Sharon Callis. The warm colours and full blooms make for a beautiful addition to your home this season. if you don’t have a polystyrene ring, why not cut a ring of strong card (corrugated card would be ideal) instead?

Want to make this project? A glue gun would be very helpful. Check out our best glue guns for craft guide.

Short on patterned paper for this project? Take a look at our ever-growing collection of free patterned papers, there are lots to choose from and there are lots of different themes. We love these confetti-style papers! For more general card making, let us show you how to make cards.

We love seeing what you make with our free printable papers, so don’t forget to share your cards and papercraft projects with us on Facebook and Twitter, too!

How to make a summer wreath

You Will Need

Polystyrene wreath, for the base
Crepe paper, green
Dies, flower and leaf
Die-cutting machine
glue gun
adhesive gems

Total time:

One day

Step 1

First – create your flowers! You can make paper flowers by using some of our free templates, like this one for paper flowers, or if you prefer, you can download some of our free flower printables and build up your summer wreath that way!

For this tutorial, we’ve opted for dies, but feel free to create your flowers in whichever way works for you!

For the stamens, we’re using the Floraristry Traditional and Universal Stamens. Once you’ve die-cut your stamens, make a tight coil with the Traditional Stamen, and wrap the Universal Stamen around the outside. We’re using a quilling tool to help us out here!

If you prefer – you can also buy ready-made stamens, like these ones, from Crafter’s Companion:

Step 2

Next, we want to make the petals. We’re using the Fabulous Folding Flower die from Florartistry – so once you’ve die-cut your flower petals, fold along the perforated centre line. Add glue along the folding strip and wrap the flower around the stamen on the quilling tool. Remove from the quilling tool.

Here’s a top tip: add texture to your petals by dry embossing the die-cuts before forming your flowers. The folding dies work best when using double-sided papers to save time on glueing and assembly. However, if you are using single-sided papers, simply cut along the perforated line, turn over one of the strips, layer over the other and glue in place.

Step 3

Add some leaves to the base of your flowers. If you’re using dies, die-cut a finisher from green paper, we’re using the Florartistry Floral Finisher, and glue to the base of the flower. Fold the edges up around the flower base. This will hold your stamens and flower petals in place!

You can mix materials when forming the flowers – why not try vellums for the centres to add a delicate touch?

Step 4

Now add some leaves to your flowers. We’re using the Fabulous Foliage dies to add to the base and a pearl, button or gem in the centre to finish. Repeat to make flowers using different paper colours and petal shapes. Add leaves to the larger flowers.

Step 5

For the main body of the summer wreath, cover a polystyrene wreath base with 30-40mm wide strips of green crêpe paper. Wrap around the wreath base overlapping slightly and secure with
glue at the end.

Instead of crêpe paper to cover the wreath you can also use fabric, felt, hessian or simply paint it!

Step 6

Add greenery to the base with various Fabulous Foliage die-cuts. Start on the outside edge and work in a clockwise direction adding pieces around the outer edge of the wreath. Repeat on the inner edge of your summer wreath.

Step 7

After making plenty of flowers for your summer wreath, glue them to the wreath base with a hot glue gun or silicone glue. Work in a clockwise direction, sticking them close together and mixing the colours, shapes and size attractively.

Step 8

Continue until you have filled the whole wreath with flowers, adding more foliage if necessary. Attach a hanging loop to the reverse, spray with a lovely scent, and your summer wreath is ready to hang.

Holly Spanner

Staff Writer, BBC Science Focus

Holly is the staff writer at BBC Science Focus. Before joining the team she was a geoenvironmental consultant and holds an MSc in Geoscience from UCL.