This Christmas craft is going down in the books in the labor of love category.
What do I mean by that, exactly?
Just that what I thought it would be is not at all what it turned out to be.
It was seriously touch and go and I almost abandoned ship, but with a mid-way change of plans and a little flexibility on my part - it all came together in the end. Thankfully.
I've seen about a million and one pine cone trees, so I figured it wouldn't be too hard to make.
I picked up the form from Michael's and the pinecones (about 100) from a local nursery.
I envisioned a simple, rustic, totally pinecone covered tree.
So, I started at the base and hot glued my little heart out, until I reached the top.
Seriously, I must have gone through 10 glue sticks, at a minimum.
This is where it all started to fall apart - my tree looked more like a cylinder than a tree and it was full of gaps where the form was showing through.
Add more pinecones, you say?
Tried that - they wouldn't stick together and I was running short on supplies.
Enter plan B.
First I added a burlap skirt tied with a gold ribbon to give the base more presence.
Then I started adding red berries.
I was fortunate to have these lying around (otherwise, I would never have finished for today's post!), but unfortunately, they were in garland form. This meant I needed to cut them off the garland and reform them into clusters; Attention, now entering the labor of love category!
But, as you can see, it was all worth it!
So maybe she's a bit more mound-esque, than tree- esque...she's still cute!
And festive.
And if this hadn't taken me the whole of nap time today, I would be showing you a picture of her in a lovely Christmas vignette somewhere. Ah, well, there is always tomorrow.
Lesson learned: plan for the right amount of material and do a bit of research in advance!
(I'm sure more strategically placed pinecones in the beginning would lead to a more pleasing shape in the end.)
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12 comments:
Pinecones are a tricky bunch... and they bite! (at least mine did) It turned out really well, I like the red berries added in!
Very nice. Love the red berries mixed with the pinecones.
This is so pretty and festive! I love the pops of red!
Very pretty! Love the berries!
Great save Liz!! I love the berries mixed in! :)
I tried to make a pinecone wreath recently...3 pinecones in I gave up! Sad..but true.
Well, for all your hard work...it is beautiful!! Great job!
Hey Liz,
Well, I think I can safely say that this is by FAR the nicest cone tree I've EVER seen. What a great idea to use berries. I know you did it out of necessity - but they do say that necessity isa the mother of invention - and look what you came up with!
Totally worth using up naptime for!!
Sarahx
I'm so into pinecones this year and I love it! The berries, while not planned, are what make it :)
wow, that's so pretty!
The finished project is beautiful! I know what you mean about almost quitting, though, as I've taken on projects that turned out to be waaaayy more trouble than I expected. I'm glad you stayed with it.
Wow! I was very amaze seeing the photos and using the pine cone use as Christmas decoration, now I know how to use the pine I've collected thank you the ideal you have posted in this site.
Just dropping by to let you know that I linked to this post in a round up today from the Home & Garden channel at Craft Gossip. :) This will appear in the main Craft Gossip RSS feed, on the main home page and can be found directly here
http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/25-christmas-tree-crafts/
If you would like a "featured by" button, you can grab one here!
http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/grab-a-craft-gossip-button/
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