DIY December #2 - Beach Inspired Shell Wreath

I have finally finished my last and most exciting DIY December project which I must say I am very proud of and even though Christmas day has past this project is great to start after christmas whilst you go on your seaside and beach walks you can be collecting shells as you go. 
As i love the beach and happen to live right by the sea I manage to witness the beautiful sunsets quite often and it's that which inspired me to create this wreath as I wanted to capture the sunsets soft golden hour tones and in a way bring them in doors.  
The thing I love most about the 'golden hour'  is how perfect everything looks, hence its name given by photographer 'the golden hour', everything compliments eachother so perfectly, so what better way to combine shells both beautiful and natural into a none typical Christmas design. I wanted to do something completely different to your usual wreath and incorporate my own personal touch to my home made decoration.  

So if you're lucky enough to live by the beach this project is super cheap to create as the main item you will need are shells and lots of. I've used limpet shells because of the warm colours on them but you can use whatever shell you wish. After you have collected your shells of various sizes you will also need the following; 
- a polystyrene hoop - available online and most craft stores. 

- glue gun and glue

- rope 

- screw hook

To begin with organise your shells into size piles then it's easier to arrange your wreath. You want to start with your most largest shells by using the hot glue gun to glue the edges of the shell to the outer side of the polystyrene wreath. When you have finished your first round of shells choose the next size down for your next round of shells using the same technique for each round working your way inwards.

Once you have completed all the rounds of shells you may want to add some extra dots of glue to support and ensure your shells stays in place.

You may notice a few gaps where you can see the polystyrene hoop and in these spaces I chose to place some smaller shells to cover the gaps, which I thought brought the whole wreath together. Still using the same glueing technique, glue around the edge of the shell and place on top of the previously placed shell above the gaps (shown in the above picture).

The last part of creating your wreath is  adding your screw in loop to the top of your polystyrene wreath by simply finding a gap between your first round of shells.  Screw it in to create the hole and carefully unscrew it ensuring not to make the hole too big. Then apply a blob of glue into the hole and screw back in the loop. You will want to leave this a good 10 minutes to dry, leave to sit to ensure it doesn't pop out when hung later, while the glue is drying you can prepair the rope to the desired length you want to hang it at and thread through the loop when the glue is set. 

Remember a sea shell wreath is not just for Christmas but can be incorporated into a year round decoration and even a table piece. 

Hope you liked my DIY December piece and make sure to follow and subscribe to my Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages.

Thanks for visiting!

Beth x