Pine Cone Flowers

Pine cone flowers are a charming and versatile addition to any home decor or craft project. These adorable little creations mimic the look of flowers but are made using pine cones, giving them a unique and rustic appeal. They can be easily crafted by gluing small pom-poms or felt petals onto the scales of the pine cone, creating a lovely bloom effect. Whether used as table decorations, wreath embellishments, or simply as standalone ornaments, pine cone flowers add a touch of outdoor beauty to any indoor setting. Get creative and have fun transforming simple pine cones into delightful floral accents that bring nature's beauty right into your home!

Supplies Needed

• Pine cones – a variety of sizes. Go on a nature walk to collect them or you can get them from Amazon or find them usually at the dollar store.
• Sticks – about 10″ long without any loose bark
• Paint – green for the stems and various shades for the flowers
• Paintbrushes – medium-sized
• Hot glue gun – used with adult assistance
• Garden snips/pruners – for adult use only

We strongly recommend using garden snips for cutting the pine cones. Depending on your pine cone and your scissors, you may be able to make it work with scissors, but we found they weren’t nearly strong enough to cut through the pine cone.

How to Make Pine Cone Flowers

1. Prepare the pine cones.

Once you’ve collected pine cones from outside, bring them inside and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 250F for about 20 minutes, keep a close eye on them. The heat will help dry them completely, get rid of any bugs that may have been on them, make any sap melt away, and also open them up as much as possible. Adults will need to do this part.

Once completely cooled, gently tap the pine cones on a table – this will loosen the papery leaf-like seeds inside.

To trim the pine cones, you will want to use garden snips or pruners – this step must also be done by an adult. Hold the pine cone in one hand and hold the pruners in the other. Find a spot between the pine cone scales where the pruner blades can fit, about half-way to two-thirds of the way up from the base.

Squeeze the pruners’ handles to cut, twisting the pruners to cut through the tough center if needed.

Cut and twist until the top of the pine cone is removed. When completely cut, the pine cone should resemble a flower, with a slightly frayed center. Repeat for as many pine cones as you’d like.

2. Paint the pine cones.

Apply a coat of paint onto the pine cone scales. As you do this, you may notice that seeds may stick to your paintbrush – just wipe them off your brush on a scrap of paper, if needed.

There are a lot of nooks and crannies on pine cones, but don’t worry about painting every single spot. You can always let the first coat dry and come back later to do touch-ups on any spots you missed.

Depending on your paint, you may need to do a couple of coats to get good coverage. To make pale or neon colors extra bright and vibrant, apply a coat of white paint as a primer and let dry completely before applying a coat of colored paint. Allow to dry completely.

Paint the center in a contrasting color, and set aside to dry.

3. Paint the stems.

Trim your sticks to the desired length – we used sticks about 10″ long, but you can use any length you’d like, especially if you have a specific jar or vase in mind for the flowers.

Apply a coat of green paint onto the sticks and set aside to dry.

4. Assemble the flowers.

With adult assistance, apply hot glue to one end of the painted stick. Insert the stick into the side of the pine cone between the scales, pressing and holding it in place until the glue dries and feels secure.

Make a bunch of flowers and turn them into a pine cone bouquet!

Arrange them in a jar or vase as decoration for any time of year of give it as a gift.