Holiday decorations are lovely - they brighten up any home or office, and really do add a sense of Christmas cheer.

Unfortunately, a lot of the decorations you'll find on the market nowadays are incredibly wasteful - made from cheap, unsustainable materials like plastic, and not designed to last longer than one season.

In this last stretch of days before Christmas, or perhaps even during some downtime between Christmas and New Year's, why not gather the family for a fun craft project, and make a few decorations that reuse old materials, and can be used year after year.

Not only will they add a unique touch to your decorations, they'll remind you of the lovely time you spent with your family over the holidays!

Below you'll find instructions for an upcycled wreath made from old magazine pages from Addicted 2 Decorating. It's a cool, straightforward design, but feel free to do an online search - there are hundreds of great ideas for reusing materials to make signature decorations!

Tools & Materials

Three old magazines (the more colourful the better!)
Glue stick
Paper cutter or scissors
3/4″ dowel rod (or something else cylindrical in shape and about 3/4″ in diameter)
Something to crease the paper with (bamboo skewer or credit card works well)
Hot glue gun with extra glue
Wreath form (can be found at any craft store)
Strip of fabric (to hang with)

Directions

Cut many (many!) 3″ x 3″ pieces from the pages of the magazines (more than 100).

Take dowel rod and roll the squares point-to-point around the dowel. Be sure that the colourful part (the part that you want to show the most) is on the inside. Use a glue stick to secure.

Slip the rolled paper off the dowel and crease it in half, using a bamboo skewer or credit card to make the crease sharp.

Create at least 100 of these doubled-over cylinders, and then start glueing them to the wreath form. At this point trust your gut! Arrange the cylinders in any kind of pattern that appeals to you, or glue them down at random. Add more based on your design sense.

Loop a strip of material through the centre of the wreath and attach it to itself with a few stitches in order to hang your masterpiece!

12 Days of Giving, Day 8: Upcycle Old Magazines into a Homemade Wreath