Recycled Christmas Wreath

Simple, fun and inexpensive, this wreath is made from recycled packing popcorn and recycled cardboard along with a few other items. It makes a great holiday decoration! Easy kids craft.

If you don't have any packing beans or popcorn you could always go into David Jones or Myer and ask at the glassware section as they just throw it away. Most of the ladies will give you a box of it for free.

Materials
15" Square piece of cardboard (do not use poster board. It's too thin)
Tacky Glue & popsicle stick
Green crayon, marker or green paint
Green Styrofoam Packing Popcorn
36" x 2 1/4" Ribbon (feel free to substitute a different width of ribbon)
Twist Tie or a 4" piece of Chenille Stem (Pipe cleaner)
Stapler or Masking Tape

Anything you would like to help decorate your wreath
1) Cut a 14" circle from the cardboard. I used part of an old corrugated cardboard box. Now, cut a 7" circle from the center of that circle. This is the base for your wreath.

2) Color or paint one side of the cardboard green. Let dry completely. Hint: When I did this project with a large group of school children, I cut out the circles and spray painted them before bringing them to school so the children didn't have to wait for it to dry (school time was limited).

3) To make a hanger for the wreath, twist the 2 ends of the twist tie or pipe cleaner together and staple or tape it to the back of the wreath (on the unpainted side). If you staple the hanger on fold the ends up to prevent it from slipping thru the staple.

4) Spread glue over the entire painted surface. The easiest way to do this is to squeeze glue on the cardboard ring then spread it with a popsicle stick. Place packing popcorn on top of the glue keeping pieces close together. Let dry before proceeding. The tacky glue will dry clear so if there is a space that ends up not covered by the packing popcorn all you will see is the green cardboard.

5) Make a bow out of the ribbon and glue it on the wreath being sure to keep the hanger at the top. For a professional look, cut the ends of the ribbon at an angle. (If older children or adults are making the wreath, they can use a hot glue gun on low setting to glue on the bow and other decorations.)

6) Glue on other decorative items such as fake flowers, little wrapped presents*, sprigs of berries, fake candy canes etc.

*Little presents can be pre-made, they are easy to make them yourself. To make little presents, get an empty match box or other little box and wrap it w/ wrapping paper or foil and attach some thin ribbon to the wrapped box.