One of my favorite decorations for any holiday is a wreath! I know – its really not that big of a deal, but its the entrance to your home – it kinda sets the tone for the entire house! I had to laugh though when I met one of my neighbors from the other end of the street after we had lived here for a while and was trying to tell her which house I lived in and she said, “OH! You’re the house with the wreaths!” What??? Apparently I am serious enough about wreaths that I earned us the title of ‘the wreath house!’ I can’t wait to see what my children’s friends will say about this when they are teenagers, LOL!
This pine cone wreath is so easy to make!
Supplies:
- Pine cones (small-ish about 2-3 inches long)
- Large Styofoam wreath, 14 inch or whatever you want
- Accessories – I went to the floral section and picked up some sparkly red berries (optional)
- 3/4 yard or less fabric or a long wide ribbon
- Brown spray paint
- Hot glue/glue gun
- thread to match the ribbon( if you don’t already have some)
We went to the mountains during Fall break where there are pine cones on the ground everywhere! My kids and I grabbed some grocery bags and set out on a pine cone treasure hunt. We were looking for pine cones that weren’t smashed or occupied (by bugs or spiders) and the smallest we could find. These pine trees were the tall pines, so the pine cones are not the smallest I’ve ever seen, but they are probably about 2-3 inches from top to bottom. I went and bought a large, white Styrofoam wreath (the largest I could find – maybe 14 or 16 inch?), accessories and a quarter yard of fabric from the craft store. You should also pick up hot glue sticks, because you’ll be using a lot of it! You also need some brown spray paint.
Start by spray painting your wreath brown. Let it dry completely. When its dry, start gluing the pine cones on. Make sure you nestle the pine cones close together so as to cover the wreath almost completely. You can turn the pine cones a little to make them ‘fit’ next to each other. I just put some glue on the bottom of the pine cone and sometimes on the sides to keep the pine cones connected for a little added strength. Gluing these on takes quite a while, but I loved watching it progress. I would get a section done and I couldn’t wait to see how the entire wreath would end up. When you’ve finished with all your pine cones, decide where/how you want to place the accessories. I just randomly placed them on – then stepped back, looked at it, and added more to the bare spots or places that needed to cover the holes where you could see the Styrofoam. Finally, I made my ‘ribbon’ from the fabric. I cut the fabric to almost 6 inches and the length for mine was about 88 inches (7 feet 4 inches), which means I cut four strips that were 44 or 45 inches by 6 inches. I put two strips right sides together and sewed one of the short edges together to make a long (88 or 90 in) piece of fabric, and repeated for the other two 44 inch strips. Then I took the two 88 inch strips of fabric and placed them right sides together and sewed all the way around leaving a small section not sewn so I could turn it right side out. Clip the corners and turn right side out, and then tuck the remaining raw edges in and sew it up by hand or machine. If your thread matches just do a top stitch – you can hide that part. If that’s too much work, just buy a wide ribbon. Tie the fabric ribbon in a beautiful bow, and hang your wreath gracefully at your front door for all to adore… and I’m sure they will!
