On a recent very rainy afternoon, I decided it would be a good idea to spend the time painting pine cones for future Fall projects. It didn’t work out like I expected.
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In my yard, I am fortunate that there are a few very tall giant pine trees that only produce these small pine cones. Since I am not a tree expert I have no idea what type of pine trees theses are. It doesn’t matter because the smaller pine cones are so pretty to use in 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 own projects online at Amazon and Etsy.
 Fall Painted Pine Cones from Windmilllake |
 Christmas Pine Cones in Red by MagnoliaFloralTexas |
 Zinna Painted Pine Cones by MagnoliaFloralTexas |
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 this way 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 to do a full dip in paint to cover the pine cones so I am trying it out this year.
Now that I have my own vendor booth at a local home décor boutique, I will need lots of 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, chop sticks and party cups.
Always clean and bake the pine cones before you use them.
Before I use any of the pine cones from my own 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 do 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 scales of the pine cones.
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 this way of 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 in orange, red, yellow, and green. And probably some white thrown in there too for Christmas.
To dip the pine cones in paint, I am also using up leftover treat cups from a baby shower I hosted earlier this year. They are shallow and disposable. I have seen other bloggers use small bowls or even just a disposal plate. I say just use whatever you have on hand.
The steps to this are very easy. Put on the disposable gloves, pour the paint in the shallow cups, dip the pine cones in, and then hang them up 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 chop sticks 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 small pine cones I was using to close back up. This was not something I was expecting from pine cones that had been baked and stored in a box for at least two seasons.
And it 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 raining afternoon, I switched to my go to method of using a small brush to paint them one scale at a time.
The whole process is tedious and messy but the end 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 to see what I end up making make with these painted pine cones in an upcoming post.
Hugs,
Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
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