With Christmas coming, our crafting has gone into overdrive. We love finding goodies from nature and turning them into handmade Christmas gifts and ornaments.
Four of our very favorite things all in one craft… beeswax, pine cones, glitter and Christmas. This weekend we made some wax-dipped and glittered pine cones to keep for our Christmas tree. Are they not the cutest little pine cones you’ve seen yet!
So, what we needed to make these little beauties is…
* Beeswax
* Pinecones
*Giltter
* Thread (for hanging your pine cones)
* A Glue Gun
In this post from last year, when we made beeswax leaf ornaments to celebrate Autumn, you can read about how to safely melt beeswax in a homemade bain-marie. As you will see, there’s nothing to it.
But, as we work with beeswax often, I have dedicated a small crock-pot (found for next to nothing at a garage sale) especially for melting our beeswax. I don’t think you could find an easier way to melt your beeswax… just break it up into small bits, pop it into the crock and set on medium to high heat and wait for your wax to melt. We put down an old drop-sheet to work on so that a few drips of wax won’t worry us.
While the beeswax is melting, we used our glue gun to glue hanging thread loops onto the tops of our pine cones.
When the wax was melted, the fun dipping began. Holding then hanging loop we had just stuck onto our pine cones, Teddy and Kitty dipped their pine cones into the hot wax.
In and out, in and out, until we had a few layers of golden wax on our pine cone. We didn’t let the pine cones rest in the hot wax for very long as this melts the layer from the previous dipping.
It’s wonderful to watch the wax drips dry.
After the last dipping, when the wax is still warm on the pine cone, we set it in a container and sprinkle it with glitter. The glitter sinks into the warm wax and sticks fast.
Oh, isn’t glitter glorious!
Green, pink and white for us this year.
Sparkly prettiness from our resident pine tree.
Here are some variations on this craft from previous years…
wax dipped pine cones
Happy Christmas crafting,
Blessings and magic,
Donni
14 Responses
I love it and can’t wait to do it with my kiddo! Does the glitter rub off like it does with glue or does it stay put?
I was going to do this project this year. I was trying to figure out how not to use crayons for some color (seems a little toxic to me). This is a great alternative. Thank you!
these are lovely. I wish I’d saved some of the pine cones i had kicking around a few months ago.
These are gorgeous. We just made something very similar, but without the wax. Must remember that for next time.
I hope you will consider linking this up to Christmas Fun – http://ourworldwideclassroom.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-fun-2011-week-1-its-craft.html
These are so sweet! I just love the smell of bees wax… might have to try this with my little one when she gets just a bit older!
Beautiful ornaments!
love it!!!so sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was just about to buy spray glue to do this. But, I have a hunk of beeswax waiting for a project! Voila! They are so beautiful. I can hardly wait to try this.
I am going to have my daughter and I try this one. I love how pretty the pine cones look. Can you add essential oils to the wax to sent the pine cones?
Joyfully,
Jackie,Mom to a very active teenager who doubles as a bright right-brained learner.
My Attempt at Blogging
Oops! I meant “scent” the pine cones, not sent.
Joyfully,
Jackie