Pinecone Turkeys Galore!

Items Used for my 7 Turkeys
Pipe Cleaners
Feathers
Scrapbook Paper
Popsicle Sticks
Pencil
Beads
Antique Shell Sequins
White Glue
Hot Glue
Thin Wire
Small Foam Sheet
Piece of Scrap Cardstock
Paper Clips


TURKEY HEAD
Very Easy
Depending on the size of your pinecone, use a third or half piece of pipe cleaner. Bend the end a half inch in for the head and continue to bend so that it looks like a swan. Stick the “swan” into the area you want the neck to come out from. Maneuver the end into a spot where it will stay twisting the pipe cleaner to do it’s thing. You may spot with white glue if you like (I didn’t).


LOOP TAIL TURKEY
Easy
Take 3 pipe cleaners (all different or same, it’s your choice). Make 2 nice loops in each of the pipe cleaners. Place together as a tail and twist together the loose ends. I used white glue to make sure they would stay together and a benefit of that was that it became extra stiff. After drying, I hot glued the tail to the base of the pine cone and held it tight until it cooled

PENCIL SPIRAL TURKEY
Fast and Easy
5 pieces of pipe cleaners. Grab the pencil and create wrapped spirals. Leave about 2 or 3 inches straight, you’ll need to twist these around each other tight and securely to create the fan tail base. Glue to make stiff. Hot Glue the cute tail to the bottom of your pinecone.


BRIGHT BEADED TURKEY
Fast and Easy
Five pipe cleaners, with each one curl the tip over its self and create a small spiral. 7 to 12 beads (depending on the size of the cone) strung up to the spiral. Twist the five bottom ends together, stiffen with white glue and spread out like a fan. Hot glue the tail to the end of your pinecone.


TRADITIONAL FEATHER PINECONE TURKEY
Easy
Cut a 2 to 3 inch shape like a fat rainbow. Lay your feathers out on the “rainbow” to get an idea how many feathers you’ll need and to see how they’ll lay out. Use any type feather you like, but they are all different so test out your feathers before gluing. Hot glue is faster, I used white glue and it needed to dry overnight. Now dry, I wriggled the base of the “rainbow” cardstock (of which the feathers are glued to) into the last row of the pinecone base and it stayed tight.

WOODEN POPSCILE TAIL TURKEY
This was the hardest one to make.
14 and 1/2 popsicle sticks. Divide to 2 groups of seven. Warm up the hot glue. Take a peek at the photo of all the tails, the sticks start off as 2 sets-then they’re glued together with the half stick (you will need to shape the half piece to fit between the two tail fan pieces, scissors and a nail file is all you’ll need to make your shape). Now think how spiral stairs rise up from a single point. We’re going to hot glue the first pieces together at one end and it should look like a tight letter “v”. Hot glue the third stick the same way and it should look like a tight “w” now. Keep gluing and staggering the 7 sticks. You should have a piece that’s looks a little bit smaller than a quarter of a circle. To make the second side of your turkey tail, repeat the same process, BUT the rotation of the staggered spiraling needs to be done in the other direction. Now you have two wooden fans. Place flat on the table with the center sticks touching and the ends face up like a bowl, use something to brace the outer edges or they will come apart from their weight. You’re gonna hot glue the seam and place the extra half stick (shaped to fit now) on the seam to join the two pieces strongly. I tried to hot glue to my pinecone but the weight was too much. I carefully wrapped thin wire around the tail end and the rows near the base of the cone until it felt secure. Harder to do, but a nice natural feel and look with the wood and cone.


FANTAIL TURKEY
Most scrapbook pages are 12” by 12”. I found an Americana print, choose whatever you like, I recommend child drawn paper too. I cut a 3” strip off the side and slowly and carefully began to fold. I’m terrible at this so I treated it like origami and kept folding from even sections. Fold in half, fold each half in half…..I’m nuts, fold how YOU like. Warm up the hot glue. So it’s a really long folded strip. Fold it as small as it can get and wrap a pipe cleaner around the bottom to keep it tight. On the actual bottom of the tightly folded fan glob some hot glue over the edge as if you we’re binding a book. Do again for good measure. While it is cooling down, cut a piece of scrap card stock about 6 inches long by how ever wide your fan folds are. Put hot glue along its length and open up the cooled fan and glue its open bottom to the cardstock. Keep tight with paper clips. You have a lovely little fan tail that will stay open now for good. Hot glue the tail to the base of the pinecone.

SEQUIN TAIL TURKEY
Easy (replace sequins with anything you fancy)
Take a piece of sheet foam I choose red to match the pink in my sequins. I cut a freehand crescent that had the shape of a turkey tail. This one I shaped to fit into the last row at the bottom of the pinecone (No hot glue anywhere). I have used some antique sequins, you might have some yourself but you can glue any little items to the foam tail base. Right now I’m thinking dried cooking beans might look cool too! I white glued the sequins in overlaying and ascending rows to the top of the foam tail. Nice and slow, one row at a time. Let dry overnight. Refit into the last row of the pinecone.

Victoria Swanson