Cheers to Friday and another pinecone project! First off, no I am not out of pinecones yet. Like I mentioned before, we collected about 500 pinecones one weekend, and although I’ve made several projects with them I still have a ton scattered all over the garage floor. I love the versatility of pinecones and the fact that you can get them for free. I’m continually brainstorming new ways to use them, so I came up with sugar plum fairy pinecone garland. It was a really fun project and there are lots of ways to customize. I think any girly girl or anyone just loving pretty decor would love this.
Making pinecone garland is simple, I’ll show you how I did this one. If you’re not using store bought pinecones, which I am not, you’ll want to bake these in the oven at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes on a cookie sheet to make sure they’re bug free. I’ve bleached pinecones, which will kill off bugs and icky stuff, but it’s not necessary for this project unless you’re going for a light weathered look.
To create a snowy effect I just dabbed on a little white paint. I used cheap craft paint, although I think using any kind of white paint would be fine. Dab on as much as you want, I was careful painting at first, then I realized the ones I painted sloppy looked just as good.
While the paint is still wet sprinkle some glitter, I used a fine silver glitter. My glitter stuck just fine to the wet paint, but you may want a little glue on hand in case yours doesn’t stick as well or if you want to add glitter deeper into the pinecone where the paint didn’t reach. Let the pinecones dry. By the way I keep rolls of brown paper from the Dollar Tree on hand for easy clean up when I’m crafting messy projects. It’s great, I just throw it all away when I’m done.
Wow, this hot glue gun has some years on it… and this is its good side! Next I glued on little pink puffs, we used 2 sizes from Hobby Lobby. Ashley chose pink and only pink but I also think a combination of colors would be pretty. I’ve lost count of how many hot glue burns I’ve had this year.
This is my secret for how I get all my pinecone garland to work. I found these little rings in the jewelry aisle, I’ve seen them at Walmart and Hobby Lobby, they’re just a few dollars. I hot glue them on the pinecones so that I can easily string the garland. If your pinecone is uneven on the bottom or it sinks in too much, gluing it off to the side a bit works just fine. Honestly this method works really well. Out of all my stair garland I’ve only had 1 ring fall off. Just let it really dry before you string it. This method is much better then tying or gluing directly to the string in my opinion because you can slide the pinecones around and adjust them. If you want the pinecones to stay in a certain spot that’s where the ribbon comes in.
Cut a bunch of ribbon into strips about 3-4 inches long. Tulle is a definite must here, not just because it’s cheap but because we’re making dancing sugar plum pinecones here! They are girly and demand fluffy tulle! For the second ribbon use anything you fancy.
Now string your pinecones along with a thin ribbon, yarn, or twine. Don’t worry too much what it looks like, we’ll cover most of it up. I started with my silver ribbon strips and tied them on, then I added the tulle ribbon strips. It’s really easy to slide and adjust everything around until you get the look you want.
When I make garland I usually tie a loop at the end, this way you can use a command hook, a thumb tack, or tie it in place with another piece of twine or ribbon. For this photo I used tape.
The only problem we had was trying to decide where to hang our sugar plum fairy garland, because it looked cute everywhere! There are two things in life I really hate doing, that’s peeling garlic and the other is pulling off hot glue strings. I pulled off so many glue strings, then I eventually thought screw it… I’ll pretend they’re icicles. Haha. Would you like to work for me seasonally pulling my hot glue strings off all my 10,000 projects? Send me a resume.
I’ve done so many pinecone projects lately, am I driving you crazy with them? Should I change my blog name to Everyday Pinecone?? Warning: I may do a Valentine’s Day pinecone project.
Our weekend will be really busy, I’m insisting we take more family photos… which means I will need to bribe my kids again with cash and prizes. Plus we have our annual Neiman Marcus Christmas Lunch at the flagship store in downtown Dallas, it’s a tradition we love, plus we have a Christmas party and it’s also my son’s birthday weekend. If you’re new to my blog or just stumbled upon it be sure and check out my Christmas tour and my budget tips.