Book Wreath for our Mantle!

I can actually say I've used SO many of my pins from Pinterest in the last month (can you believe we've been in our house a month now?).  From tips on cleaning, to painting and decor... I am learning a ton.  Since we've decided to not put our tv over our fireplace (just too high), I had been looking at ways to decorate our mantle.  I eventually would love some kind of circular mirror, but for now I was looking for anything circular to break up all the hard lines of the mantle all while being inexpensive... and that's when I saw the book wreath tutorial!  I made it last weekend and there isn't another solution that's easier or cheaper.  Total cost was $1!

Although I loved the tutorial that I followed, I wanted to use a book that had meaning to us, rather than just a romance novel off the shelf of the dollar store.  I read purpose driven life a couple years ago, still had the book laying around and thought it would be the perfect centerpiece for our family room.

I painted the edges black to help it look a little more antiqued:

Love how there are images in this book too to help break up the words:

And instead of going to the dollar store to buy a small wreath, I asked Kyle to pick up some tubing from Home Depot.  I have no idea what this stuff is called but it's hollow on the inside and super flexible.  A long tube of it is $1, so you can actually make 2 wreaths out of this if you want to.  So cut it the length that you want, and duct tape the ends together to make a circle. 

Get out your hot glue gun and go to town!

And voila!

I chose to roll my paper in an "S" shape almost, and love the way it came out:

Here's how our mantle is looking right now... candles that don't match, a framed pic of Emery that's too small for that space... BUT I love the wreath!  I actually had extra pages left, so I might go back and make another layer on the bottom to make it even larger.

 

If you decide to make one, link back with your creation!  I would love to see it!

Thanks again, Pinterest!