PINE CONES: the cuties of the forest

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!

I'm addicted to pine cones!

($85-ish dollars a piece for these ceramic cones)

Not that I'm crushing them and smoking them or anything. I just love them as a motif. They are all over my life right now. And what better time to fall in love with them. You know the best thing about them? They're free! All you have to do is bend over and pinch your fingers together, straiten back up and shove it in your pocket. Trees are so generous....they don't even complain when you steal their offspring.

I have a tiny one I'm making into some sort of jewelry (that's gonna take some figuring though). And I have one my boyfriend drew for me to go on my clock face. And I have some doodles I've done myself that're pretty sweet. And now I have some painted ones! OH yes, you read that right. And that's what this particular blog post is about. My mother has a collection of white and cream "things" on her mantle and in her entry and these little lovelies made it up there thanks to a can of while lacquer spray paint. Here's how to make your own:

Directions:

1. collect you some supplies. Like some pine cones and some newspaper and a well-ventilated area and a can of lacquer spray paint (any color really). Gloves are optional. I didn't use any but I never do. Make sure that your pine cones are fully opened before you paint them. So set them in the house in a warm dry place.

2. Lay out your newspaper You don't want to spray paint on the apron of your dad's garage without protection or he'll never stop bothering you about it. Prep your pine cones by scraping all the paper-like stuff off the "petals." It gets in the way of the paint. Set your pine cones down and shake your can till your arm hurts--or however long the can actually says to do it. Then cover as much of the top pieces as you can. Don't be afraid to stick your nozzle down in there to really get the stuff near the shaft in the center.

3. Wait

4. Recoat.

5. Wait some more.

6. Turn and hit the underside.

7. Repeat steps 3-6 till your pine cones has a nice even finish. This actually takes quite a while. And quite a few coats. Because the cone is pretty smooth and you can't very well sand it down, the paint will tend to pool. Let it! It ends up looking like this: So no worries.

(pooling)

(dry)

8. Now display and enjoy, however you like. It makes a beautiful centerpiece on the table or you could make a nature themed collage and hang them? Whatever makes you happy. Maybe you could cut the tops off first and make them into candle holders? I dunno, that could be cool though. If you figure that one out, let me know. :)

Tips and Tricks

I don't really have any. But I did use my fingers to hold it while I painted so they looked pretty ummm....anyway....I found the best way to get rid of it was to use an acetone based nail polish (lacquer) remover. It's gentle on your skin and does a pretty good job of it. You'll want to rub with the lines of your fingerprints to get the most paint off your skin. The rest will wear off throughout the day as you simply touch things.