Valentine Book Wreath

I made a book wreath for Christmas and it was my favorite decoration of the season.

I loved it so much, that I refused to take it down.

I mean, books aren't seasonal, right? Reading is a year-round hobby...so maybe a book wreath could be a year-round lovely!

Except I knew it was really a Christmas wreath. It was starting to make me feel a little Crazy Christmas Lady.

And I may be crazy, but I'm no Christmas Lady.

Late Sunday night, inspiration struck. I envisioned a new kind of book wreath that could safely carry me through another month.

So, I pulled another dusty paperback off the shelf and set to work.

I punched.

And I punched.

Then I cut some pages length-wise and wrapped the strips around my Styrofoam wreath, hot-gluing them into place on the back side.

Voila. The wreath was ready to get swoony.

I folded the hearts in half, for added dimension and texture, then I started hot gluing them individually around the outside perimeter of the wreath. I was careful to mix up the direction of the hearts and to overlap them occasionally.

After the entire outside edge was covered, I glued a layer directly beneath that, then one more beneath that.

I then went back and filled in any sparse areas and added some extra dimension where it was needed.


A yard of bright red grosgrain ribbon won the audition for "hanger". It beat out a wide burlap band edged in red, as well as a hot pink ribbon top-stitched with white.

The red proved to be the perfect foil for the black and white. He was the clear underdog, since I'm somewhat adverse to red.

But I'm always up for a good Cinderella story.

It was a perfectly Valentinian combo.

We celebrated with a late-night, shadowy photo-shoot, because we were much too excited to wait for adequate light.

A seasonal book wreath adorns my door once again. All is right in the world....until March.

*I'm linking this post to DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land, Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch and Craftaholics Anonymous.