Pinecone Crafts: Five Easy DIY Ideas for Holiday Decor

I am not talented when it comes to drawing or painting, but I love to craft! I scour Pinterest for hours looking for fun, inexpensive DIY crafting projects.

Last fall, the pine trees in our backyard dropped thousands of pinecones. What some may have seen as a messy headache, I decided to see as an opportunity. I bagged up hundreds of pinecones destined to be shaped by creativity. I hopped on the internet looking for ideas for pinecone crafts.

If you’re looking for some inexpensive, homemade from-the-heart gifts to make, I’d highly recommend trying any one of these. Before I share what pinecone crafts I put together, I should mention that one should bake their pinecones before using them for crafts. Many websites recommend preheating your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, lining a cookie sheet with tin foil, placing pinecones on this cookie sheet, and baking them for about a half an hour. There are multiple reasons for this.

1. The first being to make sure any bugs living in the pinecone die and won’t spontaneously crawl out of your holiday centerpiece during Christmas dinner.
2. Another good reason to bake your pinecones before crafting is to open the pinecone up to make it visually pleasing and to dry any sap so they do not make a sticky mess.

After baking all of my pinecones and making a list of pinecone crafts I wanted to make, I got right down to work. The following are five pinecone crafts I worked on. I cannot take credit for coming up with the ideas for any of them, but I can say that I did put my own twist on each craft and I was more than pleased with the results.

Here are the five different pinecone craft projects I undertook. Four I completed last year, and one additional project I am planning to tackle this Advent.

1) Reindeer Ornaments

This was an easy project. However, it’s not exactly young child-friendly. I made these once both my kids were in bed due to having to use my hot glue gun to ensure the pieces would stick. These were easy and inexpensive to make. I already had white ribbon lying around, and I had my kids collect twigs from the yard to use as antlers. I took a trip to the craft store and used a coupon to purchase small googly eyes and discounted wreath embellishment pieces containing fake red berries I could cut off with wire cutters and use as noses.

If I recall correctly, I made about 18 of these and gave all but one of them away as gifts. The last one was hung on our Christmas tree. They were a huge hit. I plan on putting together a couple more of these for some people this year.

2) Wreaths

This was easier than it looks, but still not a kid-friendly project. First, I painted the pinecone scale edges white with acrylic paint to look like they were snowy. Then, I bent a metal hanger into a circle and attached the pinecones to the hanger. I tied the pine cones to the hanger using fishing line and then glued them to each other using hot glue. I bought some wired ribbon and made my own bow with the aid of a Youtube tutorial to add to the wreath. I then added more embellishments using my hot glue gun. The secret to this is to keep moving the pinecones around at different angles until it looks right. Every wreath made is going to look different due to the uniqueness of every single pinecone.

3) Holiday Door Hangings

This project required a lot of trial, error, tying, and hot glue. I just had a vision after searching for inspiration on the internet and went with it. I used more YouTube videos to create the bow I imagined, and added jingle bells along with the pinecones for an even more festive touch. These bells have the added benefit of alarming me when my kids open the front door. I am excited to see it hanging on my front door this year.

4) Other Ornaments

You don’t have to get as fancy as a reindeer to create a simple, classic but timeless ornament for your tree or to give as a gift. All it takes is some hot glue, ribbon, and some imagination. These were even simpler to make than the reindeer. The hardest part was finding an appropriate size to make the bow so that it looked proportionally pleasing with each pinecone.

5) Pine Cone Christmas Trees

This is one project I plan to work on in the very near future. The idea is to spray paint pine cones green and place them in a painted small terra cotta pot you can decorate as you wish. These pots were actually left over from my garden themed wedding ten years ago. I knew my mom kept them around for a good reason.

The one big difference between this project and the others is that I may go and buy pine cones that are the appropriate size for these pots, as the ones that come off my backyard pine trees are tall and skinny and may be too loose in the pots to stand up.

One last thing to remember is that, if you plan on using pinecones from the backyard, your local park, etc., collect plenty of extras while you can!

While the pine trees in my backyard produced thousands of pinecones last year, they produced almost none this year due to how dry of a summer we had. Luckily, I saved another 200 to 300 pinecones I baked last year for this year. I should have plenty to finish all of my holiday pinecone crafts. Also, please keep in mind that pinecones are flammable, so don’t leave them unattended when they are drying in the oven, and watch out with the glue gun.

So, be inspired! However, if you have other holiday pinecone crafts or other DIY holiday gifts you love, please share them in the comments below! I’d love to try your ideas, too.