Springtime Pinecone Wreath

My yard is chock full of beautiful pinecones of all shapes and sizes! Although pinecone decorations are usually associated with fall and winter, I decided to make a wreath utilizing them for spring. How I accomplished this was by painting them with brightly colored acrylic craft paints and I'm happy with the results!

Below are the materials needed and steps to completing this project, with pictures!

Finished wreath.

Materials:

1. Wire wreath form. Mine was a 14" outer diameter wire wreath form that I bought at

Dollar Tree for $1.25.

2. Green uncoated craft wire from Walmart.

3. Green plastic-coated craft wire in a larger gauge from Walmart.

4. Wire cutters.

5. Acrylic craft paint in pink, white, blue, yellow, and orange.

6. Foil and containers to dry your painted pinecones in or on.

7. Nitrile gloves for painting. (You'll be painting with your fingers!)

Step 1: Bake pinecones on foil in 225 degree fahrenheit oven for one hour to kill the bugs and/or larvae that is living in them!! You don't want bugs in your house! But watch them closely for safety reasons, and make sure they are on foil or you will have a mess of melted sap to clean up in your oven! See pic below of how I loosely arranged them on my double-layered piece of foil.

Step 2: Using cutters, cut approximately 12" pieces of thin craft wire and wrap it around the base of each pinecone, going in-between the cone pieces, and twisting the wire tightly so the two wire ends are sticking out with enough length to wrap around and secure to the wreath form. See several photos of this step below.

* You can paint your pinecones either before or after you complete this step.

Step 3: Using the larger coated wire, wrap the wreath form as seen below and secure it. I decided to add this step to create more surface area on which to attach my pinecones. I attached a few (before painting) to show how they will look.

Step 4: Dispense paint colors into containers. Wearing nitrile gloves, dip fingers into paints, one by one, and tap the paint onto all pinecone edges, as seen below. I washed my gloved hands between colors so I wouldn't have to keep changing gloves. Allow all pinecones to dry completely before attaching to the form.

Step 5: Attach pinecones to wreath form, one by one, until the wreath form is no longer visible from the front. Finally, wrap all ends of thin wire together in groups on the wreath back, and trim the ends.