Welcome to our Eighteen Days of FFTWCness because I’m so wretchedly excited about Christmas I couldn’t wait any longer. For the next eighteen days we shall delight you with images of fabulousness and a few DIY projects to see you through until the new year.

How about a little wreath crafting. There is still time to create something splendiferous for you festive home.

So how about a pine wreath?

What do you need?

- glue

- twine

- pine cones

- pine branches with needles and longer branches (I scavenged mine from the local park)

This is an incredible easy DIY, especially if you like a little assymetry and something a little more rustic.

First select the branches you want to use and remove the dead needles and the prettiest pine cones!

Then you can move on to creating a ring shape with the branches. I like the look of having some of the branches bare but you can add more needled parts until the whole circle is covered. So sparse or needle heavy the choice is yours!

Now the tricky bit begins. I tied each join with some twine, nice and tight. When you’ve done this hold the wreath up to see how it balances. Adjust if it’s too lopsided or not lopsided enough

Once I’d joined all the pieces together I added a drop (or actually quite a lot) of glue to each of the twine joins to strengthen them. Clever no! Once the glue is dry cut the ends of the twine off to neaten the joins.

Then place your pretty pine cones onto the wreath in a lovely way and then glue into place.

Wait until the glue dries, tie a piece of twine or perhaps thick red velvet ribbon to the top of the wreath and hang it outside to show you are fabulous and festive.

And if you were thinking about creating something a little more unnatural look no further! (Gosh these images are rubbish. I took them in the dark!)

You will need

Glue

Wire coat hanger (one of those evil ones you get from the dry cleaner) or a length of wire.

Ribbon

A variety of different sized baubles – all of mine were from the poundshop – I spent about £9 on baubles. The more the merrier!

First of all remove the little hanging loops from the baubles – be careful, some are more difficult than others. Don’t throw them away, I have another crafty idea involving them!

Yes, the glitter does get everywhere!

Then bend your wire coat hanger into a circle. It acts as your base and guide for adding baubles. Add the ribbon to the top of circle at the start otherwise you’ll find it more difficult to hang your creation.

Start with relatively large baubles (larger than the ones I’ve pictured – because I forgot to take a picture before I started adding more!) and create a large circle with them. Make sure the circle is created outside the circle of your wire base.

At this point, you can start gluing. Now, you can use a multitude of different glues either a glue gun or a stronger glue. Be aware that the solvent based glues can discolour the baubles, so be careful with your application. (Although you can always hide it by adding more baubles!)

So start by gluing this circle of baubles together in between each bauble. If you are able, do try and add a dot of glue to the wire too. Once this section is dry, glue large baubles to the inside of the circle.

Once these are dry, you can start adding baubles where you see fit to create a pretty wreath. Remember the more random the better (can you ever be ore random?) and slowly your beast will take shape. I like to add the glue so each bauble is stuck to at least 2 other baubles and nestles according but  you may have a better method!

Keep going until you have added your full compliment of baubles, step back and breathe in the glitter and mastery.

Leave it to dry overnight, carefully lift and check for any loose bad boys and sort them out! Then you can hang this piece of beauty.

Majestic, no!?

And it now hangs over our backdoor. I love the Beast 2.0 (although perhaps not as much as the original Beast!)

So will you be making a wreath?