Tuesday, November 25, 2008

sparkly pinecones.


As G started feeling better he wants to do something! A has been on the couch feeling blech with the cold bug he finally succumbed to, and so it has been just me & G. We decided to do something simple that had a bunch of little steps with breaks in between. It is the most simple craft - but is always fun to do and looks great on a tree or to embellish gift packages.

Last year we picked up a garbage bag full of pine cones at the local tree farm, and I still have a bunch left. So we picked through the bag to select just the right pine cones. G settled on a few of two different types.


We started by painting a base color. This is easiest when the paint is watery - so we mixed acrylic craft paint and water until it was a little runny (2 part acrylic to 1 part water or so - depending on the type of paint you start with) and stirred it in a bowl. G then placed each pine cone in the paint and turned it and brushed over it and coated the whole thing. I held it over the bowl a minute to drip a little excess off, and then we put them on freezer paper to dry. I turned them a few times so that the paint would dry on all sides more evenly.


Next, we put some craft glue in a bowl and G used a paint brush to brush glue on the pine cones. I had bowls of glitter nearby, and as he finished brushing the glue, he then rolled each pine cone in the glitter and put it on a clean sheet of freezer paper to dry.


Once dry, we took a little wire to make a loop at the top and then strung ribbon through it to make a hanger.


We chose a simple red/white color scheme - but you can paint them as many colors as you like - and have a rainbow of glittery pine cones. Super simple and lovely to look at!

If you want to put these outside you might want to coat with a little acrylic varnish.

27 comments:

Lisa Anne said...

Simple and Beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Great craft! We are surrounded by pine trees here, and I just so happen to have some acrylic paint and glitter handy, and two kids who will be off school for a few days. Hmmmm.... :)

Sharon said...

What messy fun. I hope A throws his cold quickly!

tiff said...

These are beautiful...i love the red and white theme. What a great way to start out the holiday season!

Oh and that snow...it is magnificent...we have nothing on the ground...it is a bit strange for us Alaskans!

mamaofsugarpies said...

I LOVE these...what a great addition they will be on the tree this year! I can't wait to make them with the kiddos:)

Ruth said...

I'm in danger of being lured into decorating for Christmas! These are simply lovely and fun to do. Love to see your snow too, looks like you have more across the lake than we do, and yesterday it was sort of rainy and so some on the ground melted.

I hope health will be restored to everyone 100%.

Tara said...

I love it. I haven't saved any pine cones and it rained like a bazillion inches here last night but I'll bring some in to dry and we'll give it a go!!
So pretty.

Zachary and Jennifer said...

I recently found your blog and love it. I enjoy all the fun projects you do.

Jennifer

Stephanie said...

I amuse myself by being amused by sparkly pinecones!! :)
Years ago -pre-children- I dreaded glitter and things like bright, un-earthy colored pinecones.
Now I'm rubbing my hands with glee at tracking even more of the stuff (which I now see as Pixie Dust) throughout my house!
Yours are beautiful.
I have a project in the makes, too (of alien pinecones), hopefully we can do a bit of it today!
Steph

Angie said...

You are just too good - these are adorable:)

Hey, I know you are a bit far away, but Minnesota Matron is having a MN/WI bloggy get-together on December 13th - any chance you could make the trip?

Anonymous said...

I still have a glittery pine cone that I made as a child--we hang it on the tree every year. I don't know why I never thought of doing it with my kids!

Mary said...

How beautiful!
You guys do such great projects!

Penelope said...

Very pretty, indeed! We might just break out the paints and do the same thing! Thanks for the inspiration!

dawn klinge said...

I'm so happy that I saved some pine cones this year...I know just what to do with them now.

Jodi Anderson said...

Our color scheme is red and white as well, with a little silver tossed in as well. :)

All of the holiday decor is out of my reach and the husband won't be home to retrieve it until approximately 12/21, so we might have to do these so that our house isn't completely bare of decor until then.

Nik said...

Oh, what a cute idea. Off to gather things around here that might be useful.

Carrie said...

Do you have your tree up already? Lovely idea for ornaments. We should add this to our growing list of Christmas Crafting! Thanks for sharing.

World Wide Alternative said...

Poo on all that sickness but YAY! on all that glitter!
I love the pine cones, they look wonderful!
I can't believe you guys are all snowy again, this year has just flown! XXxx

Anet said...

Wow, these are so great! For two reasons; One, I love pine cones and two I love glitter!

Anonymous said...

That red is beautiful!

Claudia - La Casa nella Prateria said...

Beautiful!

homemoma said...

great idea!

denise said...

Thanks everyone!

Angie - Oh, wouldn't that be fun? My husband is on a short tether this month on a huge project and is working all hours of the day and night (and on call), so I can't go anywhere outside of town for a month or so. Sounds like a good time!

Carrie - Our big tree is not up yet, but A was so sick earlier this week that G begged to setup something 'special' to make him feel better...so we set up one of our small fake trees in the dining room and put on all of our handmade ornaments! :)

Gwen Buchanan said...

These turned out beautifully Denise.. so cheery! reminds me of when I was a kid....

Heidi said...

Really very good idea!!

Anonymous said...

I just saw your idea over at the Crafy Crow. Beautiful!

Unknown said...

I love this craft. So simple and yet so striking and I love that shade of red.