Quick-and-Easy Holiday Craft

This afternoon, I took a break from fighting with the bookshelves and did a quick, simple craft. It takes almost no money to put together, and the results are so pretty. I made...

Frosted pine cones and acorns

For this craft, you'll need:
White glue
Glitter
Pine cones and/or acorns
One cheap paintbrush
Hot-glue gun (only for the acorn project)
Paper plates or foil pie tins

First, gather your pine cones and acorns.

A quick walk around my neighborhood provided me all the natural material I needed. If you don't have conifers or oak trees in your area, you can buy pine cones at your local garden shop, craft store, or even supermarket. (I've never seen acorns for sale, but maybe they are, in parts of the country.)

Frosted Pine Cones

To make the frosted pine cones, first, pop the pine cones in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven for two minutes. This kills any bugs that might be hiding within. Remove pine cones with a pair of tongs and let cool for a couple of minutes. This one, a very tightly furled specimen, has been "cooked" and is ready to go:

Pour some glue onto a paper plate or foil pie tin. Use a cheap paintbrush to dab a small amount of glue on the tips of each scale. I "painted" about a fourth of the pine cone with glue at one time:

Then just shake or sprinkle glitter over the wet glue. Let dry and shake off any excess.

To keep the look sophisticated and not childish, confine the glitter to all one color. Gold, silver, white, or very pale blue would all be beautiful. The finished product is a lot Nature, a little Glam:

Here's a closeup:

Pretty, huh?

This next one I can't take credit for. I found the idea in the December 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Frosted Acorns

Gather up some acorns and caps--they don't have to be attached to each other to work. These are acorns from the California Live Oak, and they are longer and skinnier than the acorns you might be used to seeing:

Pop the acorns out of their caps. They should release with gentle pressure:

Using your cheap paintbrush, paint a thin layer of white glue over the acorn. Roll the acorn in glitter, or sprinkle it over, or some combination of the two, so that the surface is completely covered. Let them dry completely:

Then affix the caps onto the glittered acorns using a hot-glue gun:


Again, the result is Nature mets Glam.

Hot-glue the glittery acorns as embellishments on gifts, or on place cards for a holiday meal, or use very skinny ribbon to tie them by their caps onto a garland of greenery. Or just pile them into a pretty little bowl for a touch of sparkle around the house.

And all this really took is a walk outside, a dish of glue...


...and some glitter!

Have a happy weekend, everyone.