How To Make A Pinecone Flower Heart Decoration

AD | This project is in collaboration with Gorilla Glue, but all opinions are my own

A few months ago whilst making some pinecone fall mason jars, I noticed that if you cut the top off pinecones they look like flowers. That is where I got the idea for this gorgeous Valentine’s pinecone flower decoration.

Even though pinecones can be cut to look like flowers, the colour isn’t great. I’m not a fan of brown flowers! To pimp the pinecones for Valentine’s decoration, I first bleached them and then painted the pinecones a riot of reds, purples and pinks. The colours you normally associate with love!

To show off these beautiful pinecones, they were arranged in a heart shape and glued onto card so that they could be displayed in a frame.

This gorgeous pinecone flower heart doesn’t just have to be for Valentines. Why not do like the Scandi’s, and decorate with hearts all year round!

This pine cone flower heart will go really well with the painted wood slice rustic heart I also made for Valentine’s day.

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What You Need To Make A Pinecone Flower Heart

• Pinecones, smaller ones are better. If you can only get hold of big pinecones, don’t worry you’ll just end up with a bigger heart. You’ll need 15-18 pinecones depending on their size.

• Bleach to lighten the pinecones, making them easier to paint. Normal household bleach works well.
• Acrylic paints in an assortment of pinks and reds. Also a little bit of yellow paint for the centre stamens of the pinecone flower.
• IKEA RIBBA 23cm shadow box frame
• Gorilla Glue Clear . This was the best glue for sticking the pinecones to the cardboard backing. It’s crystal clear and as the adhesive doesn’t set straight away so you have time to fiddle with the flower heart arrangement before it sets.
• Pink chalk spray paint
• Secateurs

How To Make A Pinecone Flower

1. The first thing to do is bleach the pinecones. Place them in a large jar with a 50/50 bleach water solution for a few hours. The pinecones will close but don’t worry they will open up again once taken out and dried. Bleaching the pinecones will not make them white it will just lighten them few shades.

2. Take the pinecones out of the bleach and leave them overnight to dry. Once dry using the secateurs cut down the pinecones by removing the top two rows of pinecone petals.

3. The pinecones are now ready to paint. Paint the petals a variety of pinks, purples, and reds. On the edge of the pinecone petals paint a lighter shade of pink to achieve a variegated effect. Paint the center of the pinecones yellow or pink so they look like stamen.

Making The Pinecone Flower Heart

1. Firstly, spray paint the shadow box frame with pink chalk spray paint.

2. Next, on the cardboard mount paint a pink heart. Use the same paints that you used for the pinecone flowers. The heart should be the size of the pinecone flower decoration.

3. Once the paint on the pinecones has dried arrange them in a heart shape.

4. Next, glue the pinecones to the painted heart background one by one using the Gorilla Glue Clear. As both the cardboard and pinecone bottoms are porous there is no need to wet them before gluing. Just squeeze a small amount of the glue onto the base of the pinecones before sticking them on the pink heart.

5. Carry on adding the glue to the base of the pinecones until the whole of the pink heart is covered.

The thing I love about this Gorilla Glue Clear: It’s so clear that it’s virtually invisible.

6. Once you are happy with the arrangement of pinecone flowers place a heavy object such as a book on top of them. This will weigh them down as the glue sets. Leave the arrangement for at least 2 hours before removing the book.

7. Finally, place the mounted pinecone flower heart in the shadow box frame.

The pinecone flower heart can either be hung on the wall. Or as the box frame stands up on it’s own you can simply place the frame on a shelf or mantle.

I’ve made another Valentine’s decoration for my mantle, which also uses natural elements, with these embroidered hearts. Or if you fancy a wall hanging check out these watercolor paper Mache hearts.

If you liked this post you might want to check out other ways to paint pine cones and these pine cone craft ideas.

• Pine cone Christmas Tree Light
• Pine Cones Fall Mason Jars
• Pinecone Christmas Crafts

For more Valentine’s craft visit favecrafts.com