Color Wheel Wreath

I'm so excited about this project because it combines two of my favorite things - rainbows and winter decor! While doing this lesson with a class might be difficult (it does take a while) - it would still be a fun project for an color-loving art teacher to make and display in their classroom! Best of all, it absolutely could be used for instructional purposes. You could refer to it when discussing color schemes and/or the color wheel.

So without further ado, let's get started with how to make a color wheel wreath!

Materials Needed

• Tru-Ray Sulphite Construction Paper (the color on this paper lasts SO much longer than regular construction paper). I used the following colors: Yellow, Gold, Orange, Festive Red, Holiday Red, Magenta, Violet, Purple, Blue, Turquoise, Holiday Green, and Brilliant Lime.
• 12"x12" White Cardstock
• Dinner size Chinet Plate
• Hot Glue (but you could use tacky glue if you have plenty of patience)
• Scissors

Making the Paper Curls

Making the paper curls for this project is incredibly easy - in fact they're the same directions for making a simple paper rose. All you need to do is cut a bunch of 4"x4" pieces of construction paper (approx. 4-6 for each color). Then using scissors, cut the squares down into circles (make sure you use the whole paper). Then you cut a spiral into the circle (as seen in the picture below).

Once you have a spiral cut, then you just start rolling it inward towards the middle of the spiral (starting from the outer point). For better clarification you can watch the video clip below.

Once you have the paper curled, just add a bit of hot glue (or tacky glue) to the bottom of the spiral. It will attach to the remaining bit of paper (originally the center of the spiral).

Making the Base

To make my base I started by tracing a dinner size Chinet plate onto my piece of 12"x12" cardstock, then I traced a CD in the center of that. Once I cut along both lines it left me with a cardstock ring.

Next I cut out the center of that same Chinet plate.

Afterwards I added some hot glue to the rim of the Chinet plate and placed the cardstock ring on top.

In case it wasn't already obvious - taking a picture of a white paper and white plate on a white background isn't advisable for contrast reasons. haha

Adding the plate to the cardstock not only adds more stability, but it also gives you a place to hook your wreath onto the wall.

Arranging the Wreath

To make sure that my colors lined up correctly, I started by laying out (but not yet gluing) my red and green paper curls onto my plate. If you are teaching this lesson to a class, this would be a great opportunity to talk about complementary colors (colors that sit across from each other on the color wheel).

Then I added the yellow, orange, blue, and purple paper curls so that they sat across from their color complement.

Once I had those in place, I started filling in the blanks with my tertiary colors. Once those are on the plate, you can start to get a better idea of how many more paper curls you may need to make to fill in any remaining blank areas.

Once I had all my papers laid out, I began gluing down my paper curls - starting with my red - then green, orange - then blue, and yellow - then purple (again just to make sure my colors remained properly aligned). Then I glued down all the tertiary colored papers.

This wreath is BEAUTIFUL!! I cannot wait to get a chance to hang it up in my classroom (once I'm back from my extended maternity leave)! 😍