In between cleaning house, prepping my Thanksgiving menu, decorating a kids table, and all the other every day things, I am also trying to prepare for Christmas decorating!
I plan on making a lot of homemade decorations this year along with using many things from nature too and I don’t want the decorating to drag on for days and weeks when we get down the tree and boxes next weekend. So I am trying to get some of it done now so it is ready to put up when the tree is ready!
I picked up a bunch of pinecones at my in-laws house last week and baked them (250 degrees for 30 minutes) to remove all the potential bugs.
Then I thought I would experiment with 3 different ways to paint them and see which one I liked best. But I can’t decide so I need YOUR help!
I painted just the tip of these pinecones with white paint. (I would probably sprinkle them with Epsom salt as well but that is packed away in my Christmas stuff right now.)
This to me is the most natural looking method.
I dipped this pinecone all the way down into paint and let it drain off. It took a good bit of paint to do this! But I LOVE this look! I can also imagine this done in other colors as well. (And if I attached some wire to the top, I would dip it all the way into the paint so the whole thing would be covered.)
These could be done in any color, like these… So pretty!
Then these pinecones were spray painted. One coat of white primer and 2 light coats of white spray paint. They actually look a little more gray in person since the spray paint doesn’t cover extremely well.
And here’s some closeups.
Paint dipped pinecones
Painted just the tips.
And spray painted. See how they sort of look gray or shimmery? They aren’t completely white.
By the way an easy way to hang pinecones is to screw a little hook like this into the top of the pinecone.
Then you can slip some ribbon or jute or whatever you want through it to hang them on your tree, on a garland or however you want to display them.
So which one is YOUR favorite? Which one should I do for my tree?
What about combining the painted tipped pine cones and the fully dipped ones? A bit of modern mixed in with the more natural.
Well…..I think I like the ones that were dipped and the ones that just the tips were done! I like the idea of combining those 2 also!
I like the one with the painted tips best, but I think the fully dipped one in different color would look great, too. What kind of color did you use?
What a difference between these techniques. I like each one for different purposes. I think painting the tips, especially if you add epsom salt, is perfect if you want that natural snow-tinged look but the dipped ones would be very cool if you want to add a pop of playful colors to your tree. I agree with Kelly & Sherry that a mix of the two could be fun.
Thanks for sharing all three techniques; this post is getting filed away for my future use!
I love all three. See how I make decisions…I don’t. lol!!!
Ok, if I really had to choose, I like the painted tips and the fully dipped cones the best. I also love the thought of mixing the two possibly. Great post, Christina. I was planning on collecting some of these for our ornament fest starting this Monday. I’m so excited.
Thanks for sharing. 😉
All three. lol Since you’re fully decorating three trees this year, right? 🙂 I like painted tips or a combination of painted tips and dipped. I’m sure whatever you choose will be beautiful!
I like the painted tips the best but the dipped ones are very pretty too. I have a bunch of pinecones I am getting ready to paint so your ideas are just in time for me. Thanks for sharing!
I love all 3 because they are versatile and unique for various ways. I think if they were going to be used in a ‘collage’ of items the dipped ones would be great; but if used in a bowl like balls you hang on the tree then the multi-colored would be cool! So I think you might have to decide where they are going to go and then make your decisions that way?! Enjoy…wish I had some to work with!
I love the fully dipped cones! I also love the basket of multi-colored cones!
Can’t wait to see your trees.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The painted tips are my favorite. I have a silly question, put how did you just paint the tips?
What paint did you uses
I like the ones with just the tips painted the best. 🙂
My favourite is the ones with just the tips painted. Like snow had landed on the outside of the pine cone.
Debbie 🙂
I love the dipped cones. Great idea!
Thanks for this idea! Just painted the tips of some pine cones a few days ago with the kids. They look awesome in a garland. Even the ones the kids did turned out great. So simple, quick and easy!
Did the fully dipped pinecones close up after they were dipped?
My neighbor and I painted 145 pinecones yesterday. It was divided between dipping and painting the tips. This morning when I went to check on them all the fully dipped ones had closed – bummer – why. The ones tipped are fine. Just a tip on painting the tips.
We were wearing gloves with nitrile that you can get cheaply at home improvement stores. We were getting paint on the gloves as we handled the ones we dipped. Rather than waste the paint we used our gloved hands to paint the tips. Works great.
It’s the moisture that makes them close up. If I gather pinecones and then leave them outside, and they get rained on, they close up. Leaving them outside for a couple of dry days makes them open up again. Hopefully your dipped ones will reopen.
I like the paint dipped cones, it’s different. I saw Sarah Richardson do this on her show and she “thinned out” the paint with water. Her colors were beach colors because she was decorating her her beach house. They were really pretty.
Hi, How did you spray paint them? I don’t want a ton of drips and I’m not sure the best approach!
I like the tip painted ones, I’ll probably try doing it.
When I want just a hint of color for my wreaths I spray them and some I put glitter on before the paint dries. When I need more color I dip them. I’m not a fan of the painted tips.
Thanks for the pinecone demo. This is the first place I’ve seen that actually tells how to hang them with the screw in hooks. Very helpful. I like the fully dipped best but all are beautiful in their own way.
Wow!!!! I like all of them but I am really partial to the tipped and spray painted ones. Out of those two ideas, I like the tipped ones the best!!!!
We tried all three techniques. We are using all three! Tipped plain cones. Dipped some…..a bit messy. Spray painted some and then tipped some of them. We used newspaper with wax paper on top to drain them and let them dry. The ones that we dipped were made with three parts paint, two parts water. It was a bit runny and translucent on the cone but when dry, had a nice effect. We are very happy with the results!
Your dipped ones look great. I did not get the same effect on my dipped cones. I think I’ll stick to the spray painting method.
I like the tip dipped ones, adding epsom or coarse sea salt would probably be a great addition.
I absolutely love all of them. But if I had to choose between all of them, I’d say the painted tips because it’s probably the most natural.
If your looking for more DIY pine cone decorations, visit this website. https://www.google.com/amp/www.countryliving.com/diy-crafts/how-to/gmp312/all-about-pinecones-1206/?client=safari
My favourite style is the one where you have dipped the pinecone completely in paint, and then allowed it to drip off. That came out really nicely.