See that mirror? It’s right above my kitchen sink. That means while I’m doing dishes, I get to look up and – “oh, hello there!” – see myself. Not real cool.

See this box? I salvaged it on its’ way to the dumpster. How nice of me to adopt him into a loving home and give him a second chance at life. Unfortunately, I had to cut him apart first.

As we’ve already discussed, I am artistically challenged. So the circle above is not exactly a circle. There are lots of strange things goin’ on in that shape up there. It’s still a circle – it’s just a challenged circle.

Now, I was working on this while some teens were at my house. There I was mutilating a large box while they had no idea what I was doing. Meh – they get used to my weird ways after a while. I was planning to leave the circle unpainted, but one of the guys suggested I paint it just I didn’t cover the entire thing with pictures. Thank you, Ryan, for making my wreath what it never could have been without your help. I’m sure my wreath thanks you as well.

I grabbed a teeny-tiny paint roller (mentioned here) and painted the “circle” a dark brown color (using leftover paint from my custom monogram).

Then I grabbed some regular old masking tape and a stack of pictures – some colored; some black & white. Some of these pics are ones I took; others were taken by my friend, Morgan. (She took some pics of me and my kids a few months ago and did such a great job!)

I also grabbed a snack. Picture placement is hard work, right? At least my snack choices have evolved from chocolate (which I seemed to have a thing for here) to fruit. I think that’s progress.

I scattered my pictures around on the wreath until I got a look I liked.

Then I made some “tape bubbles” and taped the pictures in place on the wreath. I was originally planning to hang the wreath with ribbon and a small nail. However, the wreath ended up being extremely light (after all, it’s just cardboard!), so I put about 8 tape bubbles on the back and then just affixed it to the center of the mirror.

Simple, right? I tell ya, it’s amazing the things you can create with an old box.

Here are a few more ways you can upcycle old boxes:

Custom Monogram
NOEL Wall Art
Magazine Organizer