AUTUMN: Book Page Leaf Wreath

It does seem like Deb's got a THEME going this fall, does it not? 😉 Yep, I'm letting my bookish obsession off the shelf as I make seasonal decor using BOOKS!

This wreath is a new iteration of an idea I have played around with for years: making replicas of leaves out of paper. I pulled out my box of old tattered damaged books again, and worked some autumn magic with them... 

Continue reading for my tutorial on making the leaves and then attaching them to a foam wreath form... 

DWK
To make the leaves, you'll need:

book pages - new or old (get cheap books at garage sales!)
one sheet of plain paper to cut leaf patterns from
one pen or pencil to draw the leaf shapes
scissors - to cut out the leaf shapes

acrylic paint in your preferred colors - I used brown, orange, yellow, and green to paint the pages (then decided to use only the green and natural color finished leaves.)
clear water + small plastic cups to mix the paint wash
one flat paintbrush per color  

1. I used six pages each of the lighter beige + darker vintage book pages, leaving them as-is. I painted four more pages dark green, and four more pages in light green.

2. Add a few drops of acrylic paint to the plastic cups - one color per cup - then slowly add in about an ounce of clear water. stir to mix up the thinned wash of color.

Lay your pages out on a piece of posterboard or a doubled dropcloth to protect your work surface. First, I painted four pages dark green.

3. I mixed the yellow paint wash into the rest of the dark green paint wash - making it a warmer green tone - to paint four more pages. (I chose not to use the papers that I had painted brown, orange, and yellow in this project).

4. Let your pages lay flat until they have dried before proceeding to the next step.

5. Gather up your book pages, scissors, plain piece of paper, and pen/pencil. Find a tray or shallow box to place them in - the tray will also catch all of the scraps as you cut out the leaves. 

6. Draw as many different leaf shapes as you wish onto the plain paper, then cut them out. (I drew my shapes then thought they looked small - so when I cut them out, I left a half inch margin outside the drawn lines to make the patterns larger).

7. Place one of your leaf patterns on top of one or two book pages, and use the scissors to cut each shape out. Keep it over the box/tray to catch all of the tiny scraps.

8. Continue using the patterns to cut out as many leaf shapes as you can from each page.

9. Cut any remaining scraps into oblong leaf shapes (you can freehand them, it's easy!)

10. I had three leaf patterns, and one of them was a bit too detailed - so I simplified the cutting process by making the edges of it smooth instead of serrated. It's okay to adjust as you go!

11. I stacked up the leaves in the tray by shape as I worked, so I wouldn't have to sort them later.

12. I ended up with approximately 40 leaves in four different hues.

You can glue your book page leaves to a branch, or make a garland out of them. I chose to attach them to a wreath...

1. I made this wreath out of one large pool noodle, a long piece of baling wire, and some duct tape. (Sorry, I never made a tutorial for it!) Run the wire thru the pool noodle, bend it into a circle, and use duct tape to hold it all together. 

I cut pieces of a matlasse' bedspread and hot glued them over the pool noodle to give the wreath a finished look. I've since decorated it for every season! 

2. Plain sewing pins are all you need to attach the leaves to a foam wreath - if you use a straw or wire wreath form, hot glue will work well.

NOTE: I sat the wreath on my work surface, leaning against the back wall as I worked - easier than reaching up higher to the hanging position.

3. I started with the oblong leaves, pinning the largest ones first and then the medium sized ones. NOTE: Make sure you add leaves to the inner circle of the wreath, as well as around the outer edges and the front surface.

4. Pin one end of each leaf - and if the paper curled while wet, make sure the curled end isn't where you pin.

5. Look how that curled end adds realism and detail! 

6. Continue adding leaves - and if you want them to curl, just wrap the very end of each leaf around a chopstick for a second!

7. Next, I added the maple leaves - and I folded each one in half lengthwise, to give it more dimension. 

8. When I pinned the maple leaves on, some bent forward and some bent backward. This adds a lot of volume to the arrangement.

9. + 10. Next up were the oak leaves - I curled the end of each one using chopsticks, letting some curl backward and some curl forward. 

11. This in-process photo shows about half of the leaves that I attached. I chose to create an arrangement on just the top half of my wreath (mostly because I love the fabric - but it also saved me having to cut out more leaves.) This wreath is @ 20" across the center, so it's large. 

12. I had a few smaller oblong leaves left, so I added them in last to fill any spaces left. I didn't want to see any fabric between the leaves.

Here's the leaf arrangement completed and hanging on the old wood gate on my studio wall. My Dad built that gate 💚

A few close-up detail shots of the leaf arrangement:

You can see how the leaves overlap to cover the wreath form, and I love the lush look of it.

....and as I was photographing it, I had another idea!


I was going to place a few leaves on the bottom of the wreath, but they looked sparse in comparison to the upper half. Sitting on my desk was a book I had just finished reading, and wouldn't you know it - it had a green cover! Serendipity!

So I leaned the book against the wall and on the bottom half of the wreath, then pinned a few extra leaves around the base of it. And that made it even better:

The book is 'The Bookshop of Hidden Dreams', by Karen Hawkins. I found it here on Thriftbooks (my fave online discount used bookstore!). This book is part of a series by this author, and I've already ordered the others (The Book Charmer, A Cup of Silver Linings, and The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove.) It's a charming set of stories about a whimsical, slightly magical family of seven sisters and how they save their small hometown. I just LOVE stories about bookstores and libraries and bookish people! 

Want more paper leaf projects?  Try these!
Related Content:


Paper Paint Chip Leaves here

Scrap Paper Leaves here


Realistic Paper Leaves here.

Sheet Music Leaves here
(This was one of my first posts back when I started homeward found decor in 2012... and my lil' DIY seasonal decor blog just hit 4 MILLION views! Thank you all!)

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