Happy weekend! I hope you’ve enjoyed some relaxing time off. Maybe you’ve been working on your holiday decor? (In case you missed it, my Christmas Home Tour has lots of inspiration!) Perhaps you’re still looking for some simple and inexpensive ways to inject colour into your holiday decor? Today I’m sharing a project that is easy on the skills AND the wallet.
Special thanks to HomeTalk.com and CountryLiving.com for hosting the Home for Christmas DIY hop! I’ll be linking up this post later this evening. Click here to see all of the other #HomeForChristmas projects!
Pinecones are everywhere! Pick up a few and create a trendy and cheerful holiday centrepiece. With just a little paint and patience, you can create decorations that will last through the holidays and into winter.
What you need:
- 7-12 medium or small pinecones
- acrylic paint in a variety of colours (you can also go monochromatic!)
- small paintbrush
- clear glass vase
- Optional: satin ribbon
- Optional: hot glue
- Optional: clear glue or varnish
- Optional: fine glitter
Using acrylic paint, easily found in the dollar store, paint the seed scales (“leaves”) of your pinecone in gradient colours, starting from the lightest and working your way darker. I chose to paint my pinecones in blues because those are my favourite colours. Holiday decor doesn’t have to be red and green to be lovely! Using less “Christmassy” colours adds longevity to your centrepiece. (And of course, blue and white are the colours of Hanukah!)
To assemble my centrepiece, I grouped my painted pinecones in an inexpensive fishbowl vase from the dollar store. To add a romantic glow, you could insert a white pillar candle into the centre of the vase before adding the pinecones.
You could also turn your painted pinecones into beautiful rustic ornaments. To do this, make sure you paint the undersides of the pinecones, so that when you turn the pinecone over you can see all the gorgeous colours. I created two ornaments in different palettes. To make the ribbon hangers, I hot-glued thin satin ribbon to the bottom of the pinecone, making five small loops before glueing one longer, centre loop. Adding glitter to the scales of your pinecones is another way to inject a little sparkle!
(And yes: I photographed my ornaments on a hibiscus… A throwback to my McGill days when we didn’t always have the time/money for a real tree. I promise to photograph these in their rightful pine place of honour just as soon as the tree is up!)
You don’t have to spend much or have access to a lot of craft supplies in order to add some rustic, colourful charm to your holiday decor. Crafting is a great way to release mid-holiday stress, too! Pinecone crafts make lovely inexpensive hostess gifts or stocking stuffers.
I’m looking forward to a somewhat more relaxed week ahead. This year’s Christmas concerts are over and I’m excited to have more time to bring you some holiday DIY projects!
P.S. Don’t forget to enter the Tocara jewelry giveaway and the Fibreartistry needle felting giveaway!
This post was originally featured in the inaugural edition of the Green Paper Leaf Magazine, a publication through York University.
I’m going to hunt for some pine cones right now! Thanks for the inspiration!
Glad you liked the idea! Let me know if you end up making something similar!
I really like this idea. I am working on some pinecone ornaments for my husband’s office staff and have only considered bleaching them so far. You have definitely given me another idea. Thanks so much!
Oooh so glad you liked them! Let me know how yours turn out!
These are beautiful 🙂
Thanks, Lisa!
Love these! I am always trying to think of ways to jazz up the tons of pine cones that I have and this is such a great idea! Thanks for the inspiration!
They work well in holiday decor and they are EVERYWHERE!
These are great!! So adorable and I love the colors!!
Thanks so much, April!
What a cute idea!!
Thanks, Meg!
I have plenty of pine cones and am always looking for ways to get rid of them from my yard!!! Love the ombré idea Sarah! Pinning:) have a wonderful week and take care, Tara
Thanks so much, Tara! Pinecones are always such a cheap and cheerful decor item.
I love this! I added some glitter to pine cones this year, but did not think about painting the ends. It is such a creative idea!
Glad you like the idea, Emily!
These are so pretty and unique. Great new twist on a classic!
Thanks, Lucy!
Very clever – a fun spin on the snow capped pine cone idea!
Thanks, Marie!
These are really cute – love the idea. I have quite a few pinecones and this is a new way to use them.
Thanks for stopping by!
What a beautiful idea! I really love the outcome on this! Rustic with colour, so fun!
If you’d like help on loading the widget to show everyone else’s linkup for the blog tour, please email me! I can help. 🙂
donna@funkyjunkinteriors.net
Hi Donna – thanks for the kind offer of help. My site is still with wordpress.com for the time being, which cannot run javascript. That’s why the links can’t display. But when you click the link it takes you to the external link up page… Thinking of making the switch in the new year. 🙂
Such a fabulous idea! I love how gorgeous the pine cones look with the touches of monochromatic paint colours!
Thanks, Thea! I’m glad you enjoyed my tutorial.
This looks sooo great!!! What a fun idea! These were probably my favorite things about your home tour! I was so excited to see the huge amount of link ups for this hop! There is so much eye candy!! 🙂 Pinned!!