Pinterest Inspired Pine Cone Wreath

Okay, so we interrupt the Christmas frenzy currently going on in my head:

 ... to bring you this awesome fall wreath project.  A week or two ago, my awesome friend, The Beekeeper's Wife, pinned this amazing pine cone wreath:

via The Curious Bumblebee on Tumblr

Which I quickly re-pinned only to find no tutorial, just beautiful pictures.  So after some major pinterest sleuthing I came up a little short on the how-to and decided to just dive in (this attitude does not often produce successful crafting!!).  

I clean my dad's business office in the early mornings and I have many a time noticed the treasure trove of pine cones littering the pine-tree lined parking lot.  So the other day I armed myself with an empty computer paper box, and climbed up onto the retaining wall and began inspecting and collecting a surplus of these nature gems :)  Dressed in my ratty, bleach-stained cleaning clothes, I'm sure I looked quite curious as I excitedly held each treasure up making sure the bottoms were pretty!!!  I don't fill my look-like-a-crazy-lady-card every day but this day I managed to before 8 am!

The wreath form I got was $5 from Walmart and was foam but the smooth shiny foam, not the scratchy disintegrate-y kind.  I mention this because I spray-painted mine brown first and you can't spray paint the other kind of foam, it just melts (I've learned from experience!).  

The most tedious part would be cutting the pine cones in half.  I did that because the inspiration picture is pretty much focused on the bottoms of the pine cones which--btw--are totally beautiful, why have I not noticed that before??  Plus, cutting them results in a nice flatish area to apply heaps of hot glue.  I used garden clippers and it was a pain!  The whole time I kept thinking how much easier it would be with a small hand saw that could just saw them down.  I probably would have saved lots of time if I just stopped and went to rummage in the garage to find one, but I was too lazy to do that which--in turn--meant I did things the harder/longer way (doesn't make any sense I know!)

I got to write these jokes. So, I sit at the hotel at night and I think of something that's funny. Or, If the pen is too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of wasn't funny.
Mitch Hedberg

Then I got my hot glue on, only suffered a few minor burns (I keep wondering why I can't learn to not grasp the falling item that is coated in hot glue I-myself-just put there!!!)

img source

Much to my surprise it worked!!  I was skeptical the hot glue would hold those little guys to the foam form but it totally did!  (granted I used about half a glue stick per cone).  I worked the whole wreath with it lying flat so the back is bare and will lay nicely against the door.  I mixed in a couple "whole" cones (which really I cut off the side to make flat).  The whole project took me only about an hour and 45 minutes not bad by crafting standards!

Here's how it turned out:  

I'm hoping to get all Thanksgiving-y up in here as I'm hosting a pretty big group!  This would be easier if I could pull myself away from those darn Hallmark Christmas movies and my pandora Christmas station.  At any rate, maybe another fall-esque project or two may pop up here, be on the lookout!  

Hope your week is going lovely! ♥