My kitchen is covered in festive coloured paint, but that’s all part of crafting at this time of year isn’t it?!
We’ve already started our homemade Christmas crafts with cute Pom Pom Pine Cones, and these gorgeous pine cone trees are our latest handmade Christmas decorations project.
This DIY Christmas ornaments activity is absolutely ideal for children of all ages. There are no fiddly bits, and it’s a pretty simple craft.
DIY Christmas decorations: how to make pine cone Christmas trees
Start off by choosing a nice selection of pine cones, to make different shapes and sizes of ‘tree’. You could go on a nature hunt to find these, or they’re easy to pick up from craft suppliers *online.
Once you’ve chosen your pine cones, you will need a few other supplies to make your mini trees:
- Paint (we use standard *poster paint)
- *Paintbrushes
- *Air drying clay or *plaster of paris
Make sure you protect surfaces and clothes before you start!
This is one of those crafts where it really doesn’t matter about being precise. Kids can add as much or as little paint to their pine cones as they like, and if they’re not completely covered they still look great.
We painted some of our pine cones green, and some of them silver. White is also brilliant for a snowy scene, and gold looks lovely too. You can of course build up different paint colours on one pine cone, or add dabs of silver or white paint for snowy branch tips.
Once you’ve finished painting, let your pine cones dry completely.
When your pine cones are dry, you can add extra paint details if you haven’t already done this. We used red and gold dots to create baubles.
When you’ve finished painting and everything is dry, it’s time to create a base for each tree. *Air drying clay is the easiest way to do this, and if you can get it in white it makes the bases look like little piles of snow.
*Plaster of paris also works well, but it’s more fiddly, and will need a bit of adult supervision.
Tear a piece of clay off the block, and roll it in your hands to make a ball. Aim for a ball that’s slightly wider than the base of your pine cone.
Once you’ve rolled your ball, press it gently onto a flat surface to create a flat base, then push the bottom of your pine cone into the middle of the ball. Be quite firm when you do this; you need the pine cone to stay put!
We also used *mini terracotta pots to create a base for some of our trees. To do this, you just fill the pot with clay, and push your pine cone into the top. You can decorate the pots too – paint works well here.
If you’ve got some sparkly craft gems, you can also use these to jazz up your trees!
What do you think of our handmade Christmas ornaments? I can’t wait to decorate our Christmas table with them.
More Christmas crafts
You might also like to check out my other homemade Christmas crafts:
Pine cone tree ornaments are super quick and easy to make.
Baking soda dough tree ornaments are a lovely way to create some personalised tree decorations.
My post on homemade Christmas cards has lots of ideas for making cards with the kids.
You might also like my free printable Christmas nature scavenger hunt – it’s a brilliant way to get the kids outside and letting off steam!
I’ve also got a post on how to choose the best real Christmas tree that will help you find a show-stopping tree for your home.
If you’ve been making your own handmade Christmas decorations I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
Pin for later:
Love these tree. Think we will do something similar. I was planning to spray our cones silver but I haven’t got round to buying spray paint. Plus your idea will involve my 3 year old more.
Ah yes paint would be more hands-on for little ones wouldn’t it – I love the idea of silver though!
How wonderful! I think I’d give these a go with Sophie – thanks
Have fun!
I LOVE these so much. In fact, you have inspired me to use some tiny plant pots I have! Thank you for joining in with this years kid made Christmas Series
Brilliant! Have fun 🙂