Pine Cone Crafts

The thing I love about pine cones is that they are very versatile, and can be converted into many different thingamajigs. Every chance I get, I collect pine cones, though they often lie for a significant amount of time before they are worked upon. However, I think that they look perfectly beautiful in their natural form, and are great embellishments (below the tree or around the house) even without additions.

To be able to make different kinds of crafts with pine cone, you should collect pine cones of different sizes, shapes, and textures, for there is a wide variety around. While there are several different pine cone craft ideas people have come up with, pine cone Christmas decorations form a majority of these. That should come as no surprise, as pine cones are associated with the winter season.

Christmas Tree Decorations
Pine cones can be used in a number of different Christmas decorations. They can be added to floral arrangements and wreaths, or arranged along with orange peel and candles to make a Christmas centerpiece. To turn them into tree ornaments, one can either string them onto the branches, just the way they are or use one that you've painted gold or silver. For additional touches, one can gild them with Dutch metal. One of my favorite pine cone decorations, are tiny pine cone Christmas trees. To make these easy decorations all one needs to do is place small pine cones in silver bowls, and top each with a glittering star. You could either use sliver or regular ones.

Candle Holders
To make these, you need simple cylindrical glass vases. Use floral cutters to first snip off the pine cone's base, and then one scale at a time. Remember to work from the base upwards, and stop when you have a scale from a few pine cones. These will be used to make pine cone flowers. Cut a circle of about 1'' (or the approx size of the flower's center) in diameter from card stock. Using each scale as a petal, assemble and stick them to the disk to form a flower. You can increase the fullness of the flower by sticking a layer of smaller scales over the first ones. Use cloves or any other plant parts to form the center of the flower. To assemble your vase, wrap a golden sheer ribbon around the top of the vase (an inch below the rim), and stick your pine cone flower over the spot where both ends of the ribbon meet.

Bird Feeder
The essence of pine cone crafts for kids is that they should be easy to make. Among them, the pine cone bird feeder is a very popular option, and one your kids will enjoy making. First, find a large pine cone, and secure a loop of thread to the top it, which will be used to hang it. Spread some bird seeds in a plate. Combine two tablespoons of peanut butter with two tablespoons of margarine (you can used any other sticky food), and spread it out all over the pine cone, and then roll the pine cone in the bird seed. Hang your pine cone bird feeder from a tree.

There are so many crafts you can make using pine cones, that the wide array of options can leave one flummoxed. One that is really cute is a pine cone turkey, that can be achieved by attaching a few bird feathers for the tail, orange stems for the feet, and an acorn, wiggly eyes and red waddle stem for the head. These crafts are fairly easy to make, and once you get started, I'm sure you'll get inspired and want to try many more.