Description
Craft with pine cones and pipe cleaners! Kids will have a ball weaving the pipe cleaners in between the scales on the pine cone to transform it into a pumpkin decoration. You can either find the pine cones out on a nature walk or in your back yard or you can buy them at your local craft store.
Tip: For a nice scent, use cinnamon scented pine cones or put a few drops of essential oil directly onto the pipe cleaners.
Materials and Supplies
Craft Supplies:
- Pine cone that is about 4" tall. Choose one that is nice and wide
- Orange pipe cleaners*
- Green pipe cleaner
* The number of orange pipe cleaners needed for this project can vary greatly depending on the size of your pine cone, how tightly you wrap them and how full you want your pumpkin to be.
Craft Instructions
- Make sure the pine cone is dried out before you start. If the pine cone is opened up, then you know it is dried out. If it is not opened up (dried out) either set it in a warm dry place for two or three weeks or dry it out in the oven. To dry out the pine cone in the oven, place the pine cones on a foil lined baking sheet. Place the pan in a preheated 225 degree oven for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes, turn off the oven but leave the pine cones in the oven for an additional two hours to finish drying out.
- Starting at the top of the pine cone (the skinny end), take one orange pipe cleaner and tuck one end of the pipe cleaner in between the scales of the pine cone. Wrap the pipe cleaner around the pine cone tucking it in between the scales as you go.
- Before you get to the end of the pipe cleaner, attach another pipe cleaner to it by twisting the ends together. Continue in this fashion until the pine cone is covered. Depending on how deep the spaces are in your pine cone, you may want to go around multiple times to get good coverage.
- When you get to the bottom of the pine cone, tuck the end in so it is not noticeable.
- Twist the center of a green pipe cleaner around the top of the pine cone. Wrap the ends of the pipe cleaner around a pencil then slide the pencil out.