Pine cone Garland - 50 makes of Christmas 30/50

Busy, busy, busy I seem to have hit one of those patches where you just don't seem to be able to find time to draw breath so I am slipping in a nice quick simple Christmas make that could quite easily be used in Autumn too.

Using some of the pine cones I bleached here and a few that have been collected in the past couple of months I am making a simple garland.  All that is required is pine cones that are dried out and fully opened along with some twine, I have chosen a pale blue one that came in a set  I brought last year from Wilko

I have gone for the very easy method of just tying the twine round the cone between the layers of spikes either at the top or the bottom to give a bit of variation. I went for big gaps as I wasn't sure if I wanted to fill the gaps with more cones or something else, I tried a couple of ribbon pieces that I had hanging around, I liked the look and added some more. I will leave it up for now and add some small decorations when I trim up for Christmas.

The other methods that I have seen are screwing a small eyelet into the bottom and then threading the twine or ribbon through this or using florists wire wrapped between the layers and then wiring it onto the twine.

The dried pine cones are a good carrier for scented oils so you could put a few drops onto some of the cones if you want to add a Christmassy smell to your home without the usual pot pouri.

Nice, simple, not too time consuming and full of texture.



Make 30 done and dusted so just another 20 to reach my target of 50 makes for Christmas!


How are your Christmas plans coming along? have you started making things yet or are you still at the making lists stage?

Bleached Pine Cones - 50 makes of Christmas 2/50

I love a freebie so going for a walk and coming home with a bag full of pine cones is a real pleasure for me.  They are decorative, useful for telling the weather - open sunny and warm -closed cold and wet and they can be used as kindling for fire lighting.

When I sat down to write my list of Christmas makes this was one of the first things to go down.  It is very simple to do and is relatively cheap.

You will need

Pine cones

Bleach

Water

A jar or vessel suitable for use with bleach that will house your pine cone

A lid or plate to put on top of the jar to hold down the pine cones


Put the pine cone into the jar, if they are fully open they will hold the bleachy liquid inside when they close up, if they are closed the insides will remain untouched or take less of the bleach effect.

I use a solution of 50% bleach to 50% water and pour over the pine cones.

The pine cones will close up and float so they take up less space in the jar, you will need to put a plate or something on the top to hold them down. I used a saucer and a tin of beans!  You can also feed in a few more cone to fill up the capacity, however, the later they are added the less bleaching will occur.

You need to keep the cones immersed in the liquid for about a week, the liquid will go a dirty brown but it is just doing its job.  Throw away the liquid and leave the pine cone in a safe place to dry out.

Quite a contract to the cones in their natural state, they look nice mixed together with some unbleached ones for a simple display, but I have a few other ideas I will share later.