DIY Pinecone Crafts & Decor Ideas

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If you love crafting with natural materials and live where pine trees grow, you’ve got just what you need to create a lot of different crafts and decor items. Ironically, I used to live on a street with ‘pine’ in the name and had to buy pinecones for crafting because there were none to be found. Where we live now, there are massive old pine trees at the back of our garden and I’ve got more pinecones than I could ever use. But that doesn’t stop me from trying.

One favourite craft is to make pinecone animals. Here are my free instructions for making pinecone penguins, owls, and mice. There’s zillions more you could do. For example, the round bottom of a wide pinecone would make a fabulous turtle shell. (I’ve always got more ideas than I have time!)

Pinecone Crafts

You’ll also notice that just about every pinecone project is made using a heated glue dispenser. Although I find heated glue dispensers rather poorly designed (someone, improve them, please!), I recommend the mini ones for projects like these. You can see one here on Amazon: mini heated glue dispenser.

One thing to pay attention to is: there are many different shapes and sizes of pinecones. The long, narrow ones like I have are good for pinecone animals. The more robust, roundish ones are ideal for decor projects like the wreath, sphere, and garland you’ll see below.

Pinecone Drying Tip
If you’ve found some pinecones but they’re damp and not ready for crafting, you can bake them in a low oven (250° F /120°C) for an hour (or as long as it takes) to kill off any bugs and dry them out. Just keep an eye on them. I’ve never had a problem but mine are always very damp when I do this.

Related: DIY repurposed owl wreath

Pinecone Garland

During the summer I became slightly obsessed with making pinecone garlands. It was as simple as wrapping wire around each pinecone to form a long chain. I assure you, I’d run out of wire before I’d ever run out of pinecones.

Roundup of Pinecone Craft & Decor Projects You Can Make

These ideas come from creative blogging friends. Please visit the links below to see how-tos for each of the projects. Many of them are simple and fast and a fun way to spend an afternoon.