Christmas Decorating Ideas

Shell Trees

Materials and Tools:

low-temp hot glue gun
glue sticks
plastic wrap or rubber gloves
needle nose pliers
3 plastic foam cones of varied heights
beading thread
1 pack craft moss
assorted small seashells
assorted freshwater pearl beads
tiny starfish
four-to-five 16-inch strands rice shape freshwater pearls
ten-to-fifteen 2-inch eye pins
green limpet shells

Steps:

1. Sort limpets by size on a cookie sheet covered with paper towels and protect worktable with newspaper or plastic.

2. Unpack moss in small batches and form into sheets by squeezing and pressing material together.

3. Beginning with the largest cone, squeeze hot glue onto an area the size of the moss sheet. With plastic wrap or rubber gloves, press the moss sheet onto the cone. Repeat, until the cone is completely covered. Roll and squeeze the covered cone, securing the moss to the cone. Continue until all three cones are covered with moss.

4. Starting at the bottom of the largest cone, begin gluing the largest limpets around the base. Continue until you reach the top, decreasing the size of the limpets as you approach the top. Repeat for the remaining two cones.

5. Fill the spaces between the limpets with the small assorted shells. In the remaining spaces, attach the freshwater pearls with hot glue.

6. On a double strand of beading thread, restring the rice pearls, with a knot at one end, leaving a long tail on the needle end.

7. With the pliers, slightly open the loop of an eye pin and press it into the cone at the highest point on one side. Catch the pearl strand in this loop between the last and next-to-last pearl and squeeze the loop closed. This creates the beginning of the pearl garland.

8. Drape the strand a short distance down the cone and insert another eye pin. Drop the strand into the loop, squeeze it closed with the pliers and continue draping until you reach the bottom, periodically securing the pearl garland as you go. When you reach the bottom of the tree, knot the thread and attach the garland end to the tree with another eye pin. Follow these steps for draping each of the trees with garland.

9. Glue a conical shell or starfish atop each tree. Embellish your completed trees with tiny starfish. This is the last step as the tiny stars are very fragile.

10. Arrange the completed trees in a group surrounded by snowy white seashells.