An Afternoon of Painting Pine Cones

On a recent very rainy afternoon, I decided to spend the time painting pine cones for future Fall projects. It didn’t work out as I expected. 

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In my yard, I am fortunate that a few very tall giant pine trees only produce these small pine cones.  Since I am not a tree expert, I do no know what type of pine tree these are.  It doesn’t matter because the smaller pine cones are so pretty for craft projects.

Especially Fall projects.

If you don’t have a yard full of pine trees for free pine cones or a friend’s yard to take them out of, you can find similar products for your projects online at  Amazon and Etsy.

In previous years, I have painted the pine cones with a craft brush. This method is easy but takes longer to cover the entire pine cone, as you have to paint each scale one at a time, and it usually ruins the craft brush, too. I have always wanted to try the method of doing a full dip in paint to cover the pine cones, so I am trying it out this year.

Now that I have my vendor booth at a local home décor boutique, I will need many painted pine cones for some planned Fall projects.

As a bonus, it also clears out some of the boxes of pine cones stored in my craft room before I collect more in the yard this year.

For my project, I used small dessert cups, opened-up paper clips, chopsticks, and party cups.

Always clean and bake the pine cones before you use them.

Before I use pine cones from my yard, I make sure they are cleaned and free of bugs or bug eggs.

This is done by first brushing out the dirt and seeds in the pine cones or washing them.  If you wash them, be prepared that they might close up again, but the heat from the oven will make them open back up.

Set your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and bake the pine cones for at least 2 – 3 hours. This will kill off any bug eggs and mold already growing inside the pine cones’ scales.

The pine cones I am using today were treated this way last year, and they are still bug—and mold-free after being stored in a box for a year.

Disposal gloves are a must for painting pine cones!

Since I plan to use these painted pine cones for several different projects, I am using different colors of paint, but mostly Fall colors: orange, red, yellow, and green. I will probably throw in some white for Christmas, too.

To dip the pine cones in paint, I am also using leftover treat cups from a baby shower I hosted earlier this year.  They are shallow and disposable. Other bloggers have used small bowls or even just a disposable plate.  I say use whatever you have on hand. 

The steps to this are elementary.  Please put on the disposable gloves, pour the paint in the shallow cups, dip the pine cones in, and then hang them on paper clip hooks to drip and dry out. 

Did I mention that this was very messy?

I hung the dipped pine cones on the pulled-apart paper clips on chopsticks over empty cups to allow the extra paint to run off the pine cones and for them to dry out.

However, the extra paint caused the miniature pine cones I was using to close back up.  I was not expecting this from pine cones that had been baked and stored in a box for at least two seasons. 

This caused a few problems. The pine cones never opened back up before the paint dried, so now I have a few that are closed and painted.

For the rest of the rainy afternoon, I used a small brush to paint them one scale at a time.  

The process is tedious and messy, but the result is still so pretty!

Combined with a bag of bleached pine cones I made for a previous wreath project years ago, I now have lots of pine cones to work with for some fabulous Fall crafts.

Any suggestions on what I should make first?

Be sure to check back in an upcoming post to see what I end up making with these painted pine cones.

Hugs,

Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

I have more pine cone creative craft projects for you to enjoy:

Fall Floral Arrangement with Pine Cones

DIY Rustic Christmas Ornaments