Last week my preschoolers made mini Christmas trees from some pine cones I had collected this fall. The pine cones were covered in sap when I gathered them, so I baked them on a foil lined cookie sheet in a 225 degree oven for about 45 minutes.
Here are some instructions on exactly how to bake pine cones for crafting.
Here’s how you can make a pine cone Christmas tree, too.
Supplies
- Pine Cones
- Green Acrylic Paint
- Paintbrush
- Glitter
- Yellow Card Stock
- Toilet Paper Roll
- Christmas Fabric Scraps
- Glue
Instructions
1. Paint the pine cones using a paintbrush and green acrylic paint.
My kids did well painting the outside of the pine cones, but I had to help them a little to get some paint on the inside, too.
2. After painting the pine cones, sprinkle glitter on them while they are still wet.
I have a box that we use for all glitter projects. This cuts down on the mess factor.
3. Allow the pine cones to dry.
While the pine cones are drying you can make the base for the tree.
4. Cut a toilet paper roll into thirds.
5. Glue a scrap of Christmas fabric around one of piece of the tube.
Squeezable glue will work better than stick glue for this.
6. Cut a star out of yellow card stock.
When the pine cone is dry assemble the tree. I used my hot glue gun and did the assembling myself. However, you can certainly give it a try with tacky glue or something similar and allow the kids to do it themselves.
7. Put hot glue on the bottom (any parts that will touch the base) of the pine cone and stick it inside the toilet paper roll that you covered with fabric in step 5.
8. Use hot glue to adhere the star to the top of the pine cone.
Some other ideas would be to use mini clay pots instead of the toilet paper roll for a base. I used the toilet paper roll because I was trying to make the craft totally free.
Instead of using fabric scraps the toilet paper rolls could be painted instead. Another idea would be to use ribbon.
This was a fun craft that was very frugal. If you have access to some pine cones I recommend giving it a try.
