As soon as we get that first chill in the air I have the urge to cover the house in fall decorations. This year I'm feeling most excited about natural tones and elements because they just seem to go well with this house. We have a dark brick and wood fireplace so to break up all of that brown I thought it'd be fun to make a paint-dipped pinecone garland.
I enlisted the help of my two favorite little people to collect pinecones from our neighbor's front yard and told them we were going to make a pretty mess. They were more than willing to help. To make your own you'll need: pinecones (we used two kind but the thicker ones took the paint better), twine, acrylic craft paint, clothespins, wax paper, a cup.
I put wax paper on our work surface and then filled the mug halfway full of paint. I wanted something narrow and deep so that we could dip our pinecones deep enough without wasting a bunch of paint. We started out using clothespins to keep our hands clean but that only lasted so long. It does keep the tops of your cones paint free from messy fingers, though.
We set them in rows to dry after holding them over the cup to let the excess paint drip off. Then after about four hours I moved them onto a clean sheet of wax paper. The paint was still a bit wet at the bottom for about 10 hours so give yours plenty of drying time before you hang them.
The kids loved being involved in the process of making something and I loved using found items to decorate. Since I had all of these items on hand we spent zero on this easy decor.
