Sparkly Pinecones

Here is a quick and easy was to dress up some found treasures for the holidays.

Earlier this fall the kids and I collected bags of pine cones. We ‘cleaned’ the pine cones by placing them on a baking sheet, lined with foil, in the oven at 200F for about 20min. This helps removes some of the sap and kill off any little critters or things (hate to say it… but I also didn’t want a bunch of bugs or worms or something all over my holiday table either). This will of course will also help ensure that they are completely open (see our nature study on pine trees for details).

I then used a spray adhesive (outside – I won’t let the kids near the spray adhesive) to cover the pine cones with glue. You could also use a watered down craft glue and brush. Then the kids got to sprinkle lots of glitter on the pine cones. They loved trying to completely cover them with the glitter.

If you want your pine cones to have a holiday scent I would suggest doing that first. You can brush on cinnamon essential oil and store them in a plastic bags for a couple weeks. See this site for directions. OR you could just buy the pre-scented cones from the craft store.

We will be using the pine cones individually as ornaments and in wreaths.

Sparkly Pinecones

  1. Rachel says:

    Oh fun! I love anything with glitter. I’ll be linking.

  2. Gammy says:

    They turned out so beautiful. I’ve made them before with the paint on glue. This seems like a much easier way to do it, and less messy, that is if you can be less messy with glitter!

  3. Very cute! Everytime I see glittery pinecones I think of this. I painted about 100 of these for a Dec 15th wedding for one of my good friends several years ago. We just used glitter paint but wow do they come out beautiful either way. Really classy on a holiday table!

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