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Saturday, December 13, 2014

How To Make a Pine Cone Christmas Tree Ornament

Two versions of the same Christmas pine cone craft. The appearance of this particular ornament may be altered by switching out the materials that you use. School children in American often make this craft using pom poms. However, adults can use the same method to craft a very lovely woodland version of the ornament.
Woodland Pine Cone Christmas Tree Version
Above are detailed photos of the woodland pine cone Christmas tree.
 In this version, I used metallic beads to decorate my miniature tree instead
of the traditional pom poms.
 Supply List:
  • pine cones
  • a tiny acorn cap
  • metallic beads for the ornaments
  • hot glue gun 
  • white tacky glue
  • white school glue
  • white cotton batting balls
  • twine for hanging the ornament
  • glitter (optional)
  • pliers and scissors
Step-by-Step Directions:
  1. Glue a fluffy white cotton ball to the top of your pine cone and then turn it upside down so that the pine cone resembles a fir tree.
  2. Add a bit more of the white school glue to the snowy looking surface and spread this out with your finger tips. Let dry. You may decide to add glitter to the cotton for a extra bit of glamor. 
  3. Unravel a couple of white cotton balls and take these apart to form small amounts of fluff for the tips of your pine cone tree. 
  4. Add just a small amount of white glue to each scale and glue white cotton into place.
  5. Now use a hot glue gun to squirt a bit of the hot glue before gently pushing each metallic bead inside the cone. Work with no more than two squirts of glue and two beads at a time; hot glue dries quickly and will harden before you have had time to position the beads into place.
  6. Assemble the pine cone angel by taking apart an additional pine cone with pliers. You may need to cut and trim off the inside edge of each scale before gluing these together again.
  7. I used tacky glue to arrange the tiny scales around the tip of my index finger and then glued a piece of cotton batting to the top and inside portion of the skirt to hold everything in place. I then glued an additional teir (or ruffle)  to the angel's skirt. (pictured below)
  8. Roll a small amount of white cotton batting into the shape of a tiny head and glue this to the top of the cone shaped angel body. 
  9. Glue on a halo made from an acorn cap.
  10. Glue a metallic wire to the inside of the pine cone for hanging.
Here you can see me assemble the skirt of the angel tree topper from pine cone scales and a bit of cotton batting. The head is also made from cotton batting. The halo of my angel is made from an acorn cap.
I have glued two pine cone scales together with tacky glue and a wad of cotton batting. After these wings dry, you can then attach them with glue to the back shoulder blades of your angel. You will need to hold them in position until the glue hardens a bit.
Pine Cone Christmas Tree Version with Red Pom Poms
 
Above, I have included detailed photographs of the red pom pom variation of
this pine cone Christmas tree ornament. This version is also topped off with a
tiny turned wooden Santa figure.
  Supply List:
  • pine cones
  • hot glue gun
  • wooden spool
  • paints and/or decorative paper 
  • twine for hanging the ornament
  • A tiny ornament or star for the "tree topper"
Step-by-Step Directions:
  1. First you will need to decorate your wooden spool. I painted the edges of the one pictured above and then cut a piece of polka dot paper and glued this to the inside of the spool. This step speeds up the process of decorating the ornament.
  2. Next, hot glue a pine cone with the top of the spool. The top of the pine cone should be the end that you glue to the spool base so that the pine cone will suggest the triangular shape of a Christmas pine tree.
  3. Hot glue your pom poms to the tips of the pine cone scales. If you've turned the pine cone upside down and glued it to the spool correctly, there should be a natural "lip" for the pom pom to nestle inside. This is where you will squirt a bit of the hot glue before gently pushing each pom pom inside the cone. Work with no more than two squirts of glue and two pom poms at a time; hot glue dries quickly and will harden before you have had time to position the pom poms.
  4. Now hot glue a tiny "tree topper" to the tip of your pine cone tree if you wish.
More Pine Cone Tree Ornaments:

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