Too Cool for Yule...Tide

I was avoiding school work, which is nothing new for me or the many other higher education students out there. So It was right before Thanksgiving and I came across a stack of green coffee sleeves from Starbucks left over from a another project with a friend.  He had collected a stack of brown and some green sleeves that must have been seasonal in order to make an awesome hat (I'll post that at some point) and these green bad boys were left over.

 I have never made a wreath before but it was fun and so easy. I used some cardboard I had laying around (I always save it from shoe boxes, packaging) and made a template from an old piece of x-ray film (awesome for sewing patterns) but I would have been just as happy if I had a leaf-shaped cookie cutter.

I started by getting a feel for the size. I used a paper plate to make the circle on cardboard. The sleeves are corrugated so I was worried about extra bulk. I had a sheet of scrapbooking paper that matched the color of the sleeves perfectly. I sketched a leaf and cut it out of the xray film and started tracing and cutting away!

Lots of cutting.

I folded each leaf in half and in some cases, when I stapled it to the cardboard ring, I rolled the ends to give it more 3-dimensional.

The wreath from the back, I varied the Starbucks leaves and the regular paper ones just working in one direction around the ring.

 I added another cardboard ring to make the back more finished and provide more structure. I used some craft glue to stick it on the back but first I tied a ribbon so it could hang.

A dollar store holiday flower glued to the front and some glitter glue on a few leaves completes the look