Crafting | Newspaper chicks wreath

Hello, blog readers. I’m going back in time today to make a new home for some old friends.

Loyal readers (with good memories) might remember the newspaper chicks I made back in 2015 by decoupaging newspaper onto some yellow plastic Easter chicks.

Back then, I had them displayed under glass…

.. and made them their own miniature cheeseheads and Wisconsin Badger pennants. This year, I decided I wanted to perch them in a wreath.

Here is the back side of the wicker wreath I picked up at a thrift store to use for this project. You might be wondering why I took a picture of the back of the wreath instead of the front. So am I. #BloggerFail

Here’s the front side of the wreath after I had it painted with some Rust-Oleum Chalked paint in Linen White. It only took one coat to cover.

Next I made some flowers, by first cutting a few stacks of newspaper squares in various sizes. If you make your own flowers, I’d recommend not cutting any more than four or five layers at a time because you’re going to have to fold these squares in half three times.

Here’s my first fold.

Here’s my second fold.

Here’s what the rounded corners look like.

After your corners are rounded, you can unfold the flowers and cut about an inch or so into the petals along each fold line.

I wasn’t happy with the shape of my petals at this point, so I went back and rounded the corners a little more.

Once your petals are the shape you like, you can give them some dimension by pulling the layers apart and wrinkling them a bit or bending them around a pencil to make the paper curl.

I also spattered some black paint on them. Then I restacked some of the papers so I had smaller pieces on top of larger ones. To finish off the flowers, I pierced the middle of each one with an old earring.

My wreath had a Styrofoam base under the wicker, which meant all I had to do was poke the earrings into the wreath to secure the flowers in place.

The last step in making this wreath was adding a newspaper nest for my chicks. I just ran a piece of newspaper through my shredder for that.

Don’t they look happy all nestled in to their new home?