How to Make a Pine Cone Christmas Tree

This weekend I decided to knock out a few Christmas crafts, which started with one... and ended with burnt fingers after a marathon of a pine cone project. 

A few IG friends asked me to post a tutorial, so I thought I'd go ahead and photograph and it and share it here with y'all! 

On a Pine Cone Tree side note, I also finished my yarn wreath. Once spring hits I'll show y'all my spring changes to this wreath. 

I'm a sucker for a wreath that will last for several seasons. 

Or at least the one that I just took off my door from two years ago made that statement for me. 

Here's a close up of my bow that I was so proud of! 

I'll probably add out initial in green. 

 Now, back to the pine cone tree.

It's crazy easy, here's all you need:
-Several Pine Cones in several sizes (I used 2 Target bags full of small cones)
-a hot glue gun
-many, many hot glue sticks

 I had read several tutorials using a tomato cage, chicken wire, and every a foam core.

I just couldn't spend the money on those, especially seeing that the foam core was going to cause more work.

Turns out this is totally doable with just hot glue, you just need patience and a lot of time.

I started out by gathering my larger pine cones and making a circle in the floor about the size I wanted the base to be.

Then I took it apart and started glueing the cones together, I jabbed them together a bit then glued anything that was toughing.

Between layers I let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour, and I also let the first pine cone in every layer sit for a little while after being glued.

Yes, I used enough glue to need to wait a while before adding more.

It's crucial they are dried before moving on, it takes a lot of jamming them together to keep from having to cut them down in the beginning.

(Keep scrolling to get the rest of the directions)

Here's the final product in it's little home in our living room, the lighting just wasn't good enough to justify taking more pictures.

 As you get closer to the top you will need to start peeling the petals, or whatever it is you call the parts of a cone, so that they fit together better. I have a couple gaps that I will probably be filling in later.

Definitely sort through your cones so that the larger are on the bottom and the smaller are at the top. I had a easy go of this, the pine cones I took out of the neighbors yard were all pretty small.

Also, the closer you get to the top, make sure you're moving the pine cones slightly inward. Just enough to create a tree look.

I definitely had to step back a few times to make sure it wasn't tilted.

Other fun ways to do this would be to dip the cones in white paint, spray paint, use spray glitter, or glue on some pom pom balls. 

I seriously think it would be fun to do a full size tree version of this. 

The only issue would be storage, buying Hobby Lobby out of hot glue, and stealing enough pine cones. 

I was definitely warned by Jeremy that I should be happy that the cops weren't called.

I'm sorry, but what kind of a world do we live in that someone can't clean up your yard for you?

Here's a little up close shot so you can see the glue well.

I literally just glued anything that was touching and then glued it some more to make sure it didn't budge.

This actually turned out to be a lot more sturdy than I expected.

So tell me, have you ever made a faux Christmas tree?