The best part is that they cost nothing and will last all through the holiday season with no care whatsoever. Here are ten easy ways to decorate with pine cones.
Welcome Basket
Fill a wicker basket with pine cones and decorate with bits of greenery and a bright, red bow. Place on a dining room table as a centerpiece, on a mantel between two candles, or hang in an entryway door to set a holiday mood.
Fireplace Basket
A huge basket filled with pine cones looks wonderful next to a basket of wood at the side of a fireplace. If your cone collecting doesn’t result in enough cones to fill a big basket, stuff the bottom with crumpled newspaper and fill only the top with cones. Toss one or two in the fireplace each time you light a fire for a natural, woodsy pine scent.
Simple Wreath
This elegant wreath only uses a few of your pine cones and is an easy one for the kids to make with a little help from you. Cut corrugated cardboard in a thin doughnut shape of the diameter you want. Apply a good amount of craft glue to the cardboard shape and glue on your pine cones, placing the cones on their sides rather than bottoms. When dry, attach a picture hook to the back of the form and hang on a door or wall.
Heart Wreath
Follow the procedure for the round wreath but cut the form in the shape of a heart to make a charming, heartwarming decoration for a door or wall.
Place Card Holders
Here’s a very eco-friendly idea that takes no time at all. Paint the cones with a mixture of sugar and water to act as glue and pour sugar sprinkles over the cones. Let dry and add a label with guest’s name. Use eggcups, teacups, espresso cups, or tiny bowls to hold pine cones as place cards. When you are done using the cones, you can toss those outside for the birds to enjoy.
Bottle Stoppers
Cut the bottoms of pinecone so the surface is flat, and hot glue to wine corks from opened wine bottles. To use, leave enough cork exposed to grasp and twist in or out.
Door Swag
A swag of three giant cones is a simple alternative to a holiday wreath for your front door. Twist 26-gauge wire around the base of each cone, and then twist the wires together so the cones hang at graduated lengths. To finish, tie a large bow around the top of the wire and hang up.
Easy Tree Ornament
Use wire to cinch a length of ribbon at midpoint. Bend the end of the wire into a hook for hanging. Tie the ribbon into a bow, then hot glue the bow to the to base of a cone. Add a spring of dried flowers or a couple of tiny cones to the ribbon.
Table Centerpiece
For a chic centerpiece, insert a bouquet of grocery-store blooms into a narrow vase filled with water. Place in a larger clear vase and fill the space between with cones.
Festive Garland
To make a pine cone garland to decorate your staircase or mantel, twist 26-gage wire around the base of each cone, and then twist those wires around another wire that is the desired length of the garland.
Besides pine cones, look for more ways to decorate green and even save yourself a little green by reusing what you have to decorate your home this season.
