How To Make A Stunning Pine Cone Flower Heart Decoration
Give pine cones a whole new life: cut and paint them to look like flowers, then arrange them into a heart for a charming, creative wall decoration. This DIY uses bleach, acrylic paint, and a shadow-box frame to turn simple natural materials into a rustic-chic heart-shaped art piece, perfect for home décor or heartfelt gifts.
A few months ago, whilst making some pine cone fall mason jars, I noticed that if you cut the top off pine cones, they look like flowers. That is where I got the idea for this gorgeous Valentine's pine cone flower decoration.
Even though pine cones 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 Day decoration, I first bleached them, then painted them a riot of reds, purples,
To show off these beautiful pine cones, they were arranged in a heart shape and glued onto the card so they could be displayed in a frame.
This gorgeous pine cone flower heart doesn't have to be for Valentine's. Why not be like the Scandis and decorate with hearts all year round?
This pine cone flower heart will go well with the painted wood slice rustic heart I also made for Valentine's Day.
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What You Need To Make Pine Cone Flowers
- Pine cones, smaller ones, are better. If you can only get hold of big ones, don't worry. You'll end up with a bigger heart. You'll need 15-18 pine cones, depending on their size.
- Bleach to lighten the pinecones, making them easier to paint. Regular household bleach works well.
- Acrylic paints in an assortment of pinks and reds—also a little 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, you have time to fiddle with the flower heart arrangement before it sets.
- Pink chalk spray paint
- Secateurs
How To Make A Pine Cone Flower
Step 1: Bleach the pine cones. Place them in a large jar with a 50/50 bleach water solution for a few hours. The pine cones will close, but don't worry. They will open up again once taken out and dried. Bleaching the cones will not make them white; it will just lighten them a few shades.
Step 2: Remove them from the bleach and let them dry overnight. Once dry, use the secateurs to cut down the pine cones by removing the top two rows of pine cone petals.
Step 3: They are now ready to paint. Paint the petals with a variety of pinks, purples, and reds. On the edge of the pine cone, petals paint a lighter shade of pink to achieve a variegated effect. Paint the centre of the pine cones yellow or pink, so they look like stamens.
Making The Flower Heart
Step 4: First, spray paint the shadow box frame with pink chalk paint.
Step 5: Paint a pink heart on the cardboard mount. Use the same paints that you used for the pinecone flowers. The heart should be the size of the pine cone flower decoration.
Step 6: Once the paint on the pine cones
Step 7: Next, glue the pine cones to the painted heart background one by one using the Gorilla Glue Clear. As both the cardboard and pine cone bottoms are porous, there is no need to wet them before glueing. Just squeeze a small amount of the glue onto the base of the pine cones before sticking them on the pink heart.
Step 8: Carry adding glue to the pine cones' base until the whole pink heart is covered.
Step 9: Once you are happy with the arrangement of pine cone 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.
Step 10: Place the mounted pine cone flower heart in the shadow box frame.
The pine cone flower heart can be hung on the wall. Or, as the box frame stands up on its own, you can place it on a shelf or mantle.
I've made another Valentine's craft for my mantle that also uses natural elements, featuring these embroidered hearts. Or if you fancy a wall hanging, check out these watercolour 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.
Please pin this pine cone flower craft.
For more Valentine's crafts, visit favecrafts.com
Really fun idea using the pine-cones to your art piece. I love the texture of the painted pine-cones. Happy Valentine's Day, Kippi #kippiathome
Thank you so much Kippi. I love the 3D effect with the cones.
Oh my goodness, I adore these. The end result is so pretty and effective *off to find some pinecones* #homeetc
Thank you so much. There are still plenty on the ground in our park.
Gorgeous and I agree it can be displayed all year round #goinggreen
Thank you, I will be keeping it up.
Oh, I love this so much! I am always looking for pinecone crafts. My next door neighbor has two pine trees that drop lots of pinecones in our backyard (although they are the large pinecones, not small). So, I always have pinecones on hand. Thanks so much for sharing at Sweet Inspiration!
Thank you. It will work just as well with big pinecones as small, you'll probably just end up with a bigger heart.
Your pinecone heart is stunning! What a terrific idea!
Thank you so much. I think it's the colours that make it!
I love pinecones and this is so inspiring!! Beautiful! I'll be sharing it as one of my features at Share Your Style tomorrow. Thanks for linking up!
Thank you so much I look forward to seeing it!
Superbe !
Anna
Thank you so much!
I've seen pine cone flowers before but I love making a heart out of them.
Thank you. I thought a heart would be quite festive for this time of year.
This is so pretty. I love how the pinecones look like flowers. Thanks for sharing at the Snickerdoodle Create Bake Make Party.
Thank you Debbie. It is fun that they look like flowers.
This is such a cute project and I have saved pinecones for something, Im thinking with such pretty bright colors it would be cute out in my garden on a tree, I need a little color. I would love to have you stop by and share your projects for my readers on my Wonderful Wednesday party.
Keep creating!!
Thank you so much and I will visit.
Cooooooool!!!!! Love how this turned out so much. I have got to go find me some more pinecones
Thank you, Michelle. Painting pinecones are fun and really does transform them.
Love it Claire, brilliant idea to paint the heart shape first on the background. thanks for sharing on craft schooling Sunday! I may be starting art classes with some of the kids in my neighborhood again (as my heart just can't take it that they don't have exposure to creativity) and I'm sure the little girls will just love this one.
Thank you. Painting the background helped with the placement of the pinecones and how they looked at the end.
I really like this idea, Claire! Who knew pine cones could be so beautiful.
Thank you, Marie. I know it’s amazing how some paint can transform them.
Hi this is Kristina visiting from Homemade Hangout. This is so pretty! I wish I was this creative.
Hi Kristina, thank you. They are very easy to make, I’m sure you could give it a go.
That looks amazing Claire! I will definitely be attempting this. Thank you x
Aww, thank you, Wendy. It was fun to make.