Quick DIY Thanksgiving Place Cards

This is such a simple, easy idea and yet so festive and fun for Thanksgiving.

Take a pine cone, spray paint on a little glitter (or leave it plain if you'd rather) and make up a place card using card stock.

Use a pen or computer to print names on the cards and slip between pieces of the pine cone.

The photo at right is from Better Homes and Gardens.

Scented Pinecones

I love the smell of cinnamon.  It always reminds me of the holidays.  And cinnamon scented pinecones make the whole house smell fabulous.  You’ve probably seen them in the local craft stores, sold along with the scented brooms. 

So why pay for scented pinecones, when I can make my own?  With having a huge pine tree in my front yard, I found a nice selection of them and made my own baskets of scented pinecones!

For this project I used:
Pinecones
Essential Oil- Cinnamon
A spray bottle
Cinnamon Sticks
Basket
Assorted Ornaments

Once you have chosen your pinecones, you would need to wash them in the sink and then place them on a cookie sheet and put them in a 200 degree oven for an hour.  This not only cleans them up, but dries them out  and opens them up completely.  Be sure to keep a close eye on them while in the oven for safety.

Then add your essential oil to a spray bottle and spray the pinecones thoroughly.  (You can find essential oils at most craft stores.  They are relatively inexpensive and come in all sorts of scents!)

Place your pinecones inside ziplock bags and let them sit for 24 hours.  Then pull them out and allow them to air dry.  They will smell wonderful!

Pinecones make wonderful decorations and centerpieces for the holidays.  I like to pile them into a basket, and add an assortment of ornaments and cinnnamon sticks for a festive look.  A simple, inexpensive centerpiece that will make your room smell like the holidays.

Pinecone Picture-Frame Ornaments

Tools and Materials (Martha Stewart Craft)

• Pinecones
• Family photos
• Small floral clippers
• Craft glue
• Card stock
• Pencil
• Circle template (make yourself or buy at a crafts store)
• Decorative paper
• Ribbon

• 
  Photos displayed in pinecone frames demand a closer look; when hung on the tree, each ornament, like a page in a scrapbook, tells a story. A single ornament -- or a set -- makes a lovely keepsake to share with family members.
• 

  Step 1

  Remove pinecone scales with small floral clippers.
• 

  Step 2

  Glue a photograph or photocopy of a picture onto card stock. Using a template for a circle or other shape (you can make it yourself or buy one at a crafts store), outline the shape onto your photograph with a pencil; cut out. Hot-glue pinecone scales around perimeter at the back of the cutout, so the scales peek from behind the edge. Alternatively, you can glue scales onto the front of the cutout photograph. Finish the ornament with decorative paper glued to the back with a few dots of craft glue. Glue a looped length of ribbon between backing paper and photo to make a hanger.

Pinecone Craft - Bird Feeder

We have this huge pine tree in our front yard, which drops tons and tons of pine cones (and useless needles).  Every year I want to do something with the pine cones but most of the time they just waste in my yard because I just can't come up with a project.

Last year we made a few bird feeders with them.


Ingredients:

Pine cones
Peanut butter
Birdseed
Plastic storage bag with seal
Plastic Spoon
Newspaper (something to cover your work area)
Ribbon/String
Scissors

Directions:

Take the plastic spoon and dip it into the peanut butter.
Spread the peanut butter all over the pine cone
Pour birdseed into the plastic storage bag and drop pine cone into it.
Seal the bag and shake until the pine cone is all covered with bird seed.
Partially pull out the pine cone out of the bag and shake off loose seeds.
Tie a ribbon/string on the end of the pine cone so you can hang it outside.

Voila, you have a bird feed.

Melted Crayon Art

Somebody who I know did an awesome canvas with melted crayons so I thought, "Hey, why not, I can do this!".

I was hoping a for a little more splatter but it till came out pretty good.

For the melting part, make sure you take this project outside.  If not, you really want to cover your area with newspaper.  This (can) will get messy.

Hot glue green (various shades of green) crayons onto any canvas of your size.

With your crayons on top, use your hairdryer (or heat gun) on it's highest setting. Hold your hairdryer close to your crayons until they start to melt and run down your canvas.

Turn your canvas over (crayons are now on the bottom), hot glue some flowers and gems to it.

Voila!  Melted Crayon Flower Art.

This one was done the same way but with various blues.  The little kid and duck were cut out on my Cricut Machine.