Every holiday season the family gets together a few times to make some crafts for the local nursing home and assisted living center. We make them and donate them to all of the residents so that they can decorate their rooms and lounges.
The adults in our family make more complicated craft projects and the kids get simple ones to do. Every year we all look forward to these family crafting sessions and 2 weeks ago we got started!
This project is inexpensive, quick, easy and great for the younger kids!
Glittered Pinecones Holiday Tree Ornaments
Large Pinecones
White Paint with Paint Brush
Glitter Glue (or) Bottle of Fine Grade Glitter
All Purpose Craft Glue (the kind that dries clear)
Ribbon and Scissors
Paper Towels and Newspaper
Take the family out for a nature walk and collect some large pinecones. Look for ones that are not damaged and have no tree sap on them. Bring them home and let them sit out for a day or two to make sure that there are no bugs or critters in them. We place ours in a large Rubbermaid container.
Lay newspaper down on your work service to protect it from glue, paint and glitter. The kids used white acrylic paint with ours to make them look like snow covered pinecones and painted the pinecones fully and on some they just painted the pinecone tips.
You can add the glitter one of two ways. You can use glitter glue and just brush it onto the pinecone tips or you can sprinkle fine grade glitter all over the pinecone before the white paint dries so that as the paint dries it traps in the glitter. In our opinion, fine grade glitter works best…the thicker and larger glitter didn’t look to great on our pinecones at all.
Let pinecones dry overnight. The next day cut off some ribbon and glue bows at the top of each pinecone for hanging. Let dry for a few hours and your done!
You can make up boat loads of these in just one afternoon! Use them as tree ornaments, hang them on wreaths, cabinet knobs or use as package toppers.
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This is a great project for the kids. I remember going on a walk with my sons years ago and collecting pine cones. The first time I didn’t leave them out over night, but I learned from that experience. We also used silver and gold paint for the tips.
Oh I have all the items to make these. I think the pinecones are even cinnamon scented (purchased years ago from the craft store). I may find some ideas on adding more to the glitter. I don’t know, feathers come to mind! I’ll be creative!