25 Gifts & Ornaments #17 - Sea Shell Wreath

Today's project is a bit time consuming but the finished wreath is SOOOO worth the work....

25 Gifts & Ornaments

#17 - Sea Shell Wreath

Supplies:

Wreath (should be pretty substantial to take the weight)
Shells
Hot Glue Gun
Metallic Spray Paint (gold or silver)
Ribbon
Wire (heavy duty)

Instructions:

1. Start by washing all the sand off of your shells and let them air dry.

2. Attach the wire hanger to the back of the wreath.
3. Begin by gluing the larger shells to the outside of the wreath.  I find they fit better if you alternate the larger and smaller ends up.    I also laid the wreath so it is flat on my work surface and used the table as a gauge on where to position the shells....  All of the shells were level with the table so that once the wreath was hung on a door or wall it would lay flat and not have any lumps or bumps by shells being glued on unevenly.

4. After you have covered the outside of the wreath, glue a layer of shells along the inside of the wreath.

5. Finally, cover the top portion of the wreath with smaller or unusual shells.  I covered the majority of the wreath and then went back over it and added smaller shells to fill in any gaps.

6. Once you're finished adding all the shells needed you will need to go back over the wreath and cut off any drips that might have occurred.  I cut mine off with an exacto knife.  You also need to remove any glue spider webs... no matter how careful I am I always seem to accumulate those buggers!

7. Now that you've got your wreath all cleaned up it's time to paint!  I don't have any photos of this as I had to take the wreath over to our building to paint.  I used a silver metallic paint (Rustoleum) but you can use any color you'd like.

8. After your paint has cured you can add the ribbon and hang it up!!

Here is how my wreath turned out! 

All of the ridges of each and every shell is highlighted by the metallic paint...it's simply amazing!

I'm thinkin if you change the color of the ribbon you could leave this wreath out all year long.

Have a wonderful evening!!