Preparation of materials for creativity. The best ideas on how to make a craft out of cones: interior items, New Year's decor, funny animals, holiday decorations. Councils of the masters.
Crafts from cones are familiar souvenirs from childhood. Now there are many techniques for making interesting products from the gifts of the forest, the use of which will not only allow you to have fun in a close family circle, but also help your child create a real masterpiece with his own hands. If you show your imagination and take advantage of the advice of professional craftsmen, then hand-made beautiful crafts from cones can perfectly fit into the interior, giving it a special charm and originality.
What are pine cone crafts?
In the photo, crafts from cones
Most modern parents believe that creating crafts from cones for a garden or school is just a whim of educators and teachers, and yet such a joint pastime brings together all family members who take part in it.
This activity also performs a number of other equally important tasks:
- Before making a product, you and your child need to find them in the nearest park or forest where there are conifers. A walk in the fresh air always has a positive effect on the physical and emotional state of both the adult and the child.
- By DIY handicrafts, your child develops fine motor skills, which plays an important role in his overall development. Performing such tasks improves vision, attention, memory, receptivity and better speech development. Crafts from small cones, nuts, chestnuts and other gifts of nature have a positive effect on manual dexterity, improve handwriting and increase the child's reaction time.
- The materials used for making crafts are environmentally friendly and safe for your child. There are many useful resins in pine and spruce cones, for this reason, children's crafts from cones that you leave at home will not only delight the eye, but also emit a pleasant coniferous aroma. Aromatherapists claim that the resinous, bitter smell of pine needles helps to normalize mood, increase pulmonary circulation and oxygenate the body.
Making crafts from cones, leaves and acorns, inventing various heroes from branches and chestnuts, collecting materials for creativity with his own hand, your child learns the world surrounding his nature, begins to understand its value and learns to use its gifts.
Materials for making crafts from cones
Many beginners think that the main thing is to know how to make a craft from cones, and real masters assign the main role in its creation to the formation of the idea itself. Initially, you need to think about what exactly you plan to do with the child, from what materials. Also plan where your work will show off.
First of all, for creativity, you will need, of course, the bumps themselves. They can be from pine, spruce or cedar. To create beautiful cone crafts, you need to carefully choose the material. Broken or damaged by animals specimens should not be used, and they should not show any traces of mold or decay. The number of cones depends on the size of the craft. And the type of product also depends on what the bump should be - open or closed.
To be able to make crafts all year round from cones and chestnuts, acorns and foliage, take care of the collection and preservation of materials in advance. The optimal period for this is considered to be mid and late autumn.
To increase the shelf life of children's crafts made from cones, the collected material must be treated with an adhesive solution immediately after entering the room. A lump that has been in the glue for half a minute will not deform in the heat after drying.
If you did not have time to fix its shape in time, and it was deformed from the elevated temperature, ordinary water will help to return it to its previous state. Place the cone in a glass of water, and when it is completely hydrated, shape its petals into the desired shape. Additionally, a rope may be required for this. After the material has dried, you can start working.
The bump is a dense material that requires a lot of experience to process. If you plan to create crafts from cones for the garden with a younger preschool child, it is advisable to use plasticine as a fastening element, and use cones in their raw form.
To create complex structures, you need to be able to drill, saw and pierce holes with an awl. So, school crafts from cones can be made in labor offices, where it is possible to drill and pierce the material, having previously clamped it in a vise with mandatory observance of safety precautions. In this case, it is important that all piercing and cutting objects during use are directed away from oneself, and any types of material processing are carried out not in hands, but on a backing board.
To trim or shape the bud, it's best to use a small garden pruner rather than a knife. If you do not know how to work with such tools, it is better to choose simpler craft schemes, in which individual parts are connected with an adhesive composition.
For gluing when making school crafts from cones, you can use carpentry or casein glue. The preparation of the first of them is fraught with certain difficulties, since it requires a glue cooker, an electric stove, an outlet and electrical wiring. And the disadvantage of casein glue is its long drying time. Fast-setting adhesives BF-2, BF-6, B-88, Mars, Phoenix or ordinary polyvinyl acetate will quickly help to glue crafts from cones.
A further set of materials and tools is selected depending on what kind of product you decide to make. If it is a volumetric structure, you may need a thin wire or fishing line on which the cones will be strung. To decorate products, you will need feathers, leaves, various fruits; to create interior elements or festive decorations, bright ribbons, beads and beads are selected.
Important! Children can make crafts from cones and plasticine on their own, but when using glue or piercing-cutting objects, the mandatory presence of adults is necessary during applied creativity.
After you have chosen what kind of craft to make from the cones, collected the materials, prepare the workplace. Cover it with newspapers or old paper for safety. And you can start working in compliance with all safety rules.
Best pine cone craft ideas
When time is tight and you need to form a cone craft quickly, choose ideas without the use of complex processing technologies and long-drying adhesives. When considering options for young children, give preference to schemes using plasticine, rather than adhesives. Schoolchildren may well create their own products from cones, acorns, branches, leaves and other elements. Here are some of the best ideas that you can easily do with your parents or on your own.
Cones basket
For production, small, only opened coniferous cones in the amount of 50-100 pieces are used. To shape the product, you will need a thin wire, and a glue gun or superglue will help to reliably connect the parts.
The wire is cut into pieces, which are wrapped around each bump. A chain is assembled from them, the links of which are twisted together and connected into a ring. Several such circles are created. Their number and diameter depends on the size of the basket. If you need to create a pine cone craft narrowed upwards, the diameter of the upper circle should be smaller than the lower one. If the basket is open at the top and narrowed at the bottom, then the circles are made of appropriate diameters.
To make a medium-sized basket, you will need 3 circles. They are connected vertically with a solid piece of wire and tightened tightly. They can also be sealed with glue or a glue gun. To make the bottom, a flower consisting of 3 fruits is glued together. The bottom is connected to the bottom of the basket.
The handle is formed from fruits, wrapped with wire and connected to each other. The finished handle is attached to the top ring of the basket. From above, the product is varnished.
If the task is to create a craft from cones and branches or any other elements, then various branches, roots, berries and flowers can be placed inside the basket. You can also make a craft from cones and chestnuts, then creating chains, you need to alternately connect 1 cone and 1 chestnut in them. Such a product will look original and attractive.
Pine cone hedgehog
To make the Hedgehog crafts, you will need actual cones and plasticine. Since there is no need to use glue and sharp-edged objects, this idea is suitable for preschool children.
Plasticine will need gray and black. The body of a hedgehog is molded from the first. A muzzle is extended in front, eyes and a nose of black plasticine are formed on it. Needles are made from cones.
To make the hedgehog as realistic as possible, you can prick small apples and leaves on improvised needles.
Note! Similarly, you can make crafts from fir cones, in this case you need to use small ones that have not yet opened, then the hedgehog will turn out to be more prickly, but no less attractive.
Herringbone cones
The Christmas tree made of cones can become an original New Year's decor for any interior. For its production, you can use both separately spruce or pine cones, and assorted.
A cardboard cone is used as the basis for the future Christmas tree. It is created according to the size of the future jewelry.
On the cone, starting from bottom to top, cones, beads, tinsel and other decorative elements are glued with glue or a glue gun. If desired, the craft can be painted with paint from a balloon, and decorated with artificial snow below.
Festive cone wreath
This is a very interesting craft made of cones, because, depending on the decor used, it can become a decoration for almost any holiday. If you make such a product, decorate it with small bells and artificial snow, it will perfectly fit into the New Year's design. In autumn, you can use leaves, rowan berries, small hawthorn fruits to decorate a festive wreath.
How to make a wreath-shaped craft from cones step by step:
- A frame of the desired size is cut out of cardboard. It should be in the shape of a ring.
- The cones are separately dyed in the desired color, if necessary, covered with sparkles.
- Before gluing them to the base, lay out the working materials, assess the perspective, make adjustments to the idea. Only when the design of the wreath fully meets your requirements, use glue.
- Elements and all planned decor are glued to the form.
- A ribbon pendant is attached to the top of the craft made of fir cones.
Important! The main recommendation of the masters is never to limit your imagination. Do not be afraid to bring your own flavor, decorate the product with original elements, paint it with colored paints or varnish it.
Cone owlet
A cone owl is a craft that has a special variety of options. It can be made using acorns. To create one owlet, you need 1 open pine cone. The chick's eyes are made from 2 acorn caps glued to the base with glue or plasticine. Feathers are inserted on the sides, which serve as wings for the owlet.
In addition, a large, open cedar cone and a lot of plucked cotton wool can be used to make an owlet. It fits tightly between the petals of the cone. The eyes, ears and nose of an owlet are made of paper or cut out of felt. Similarly, wings are made from cedar cones for crafts.
You can also make an owlet with the participation of plasticine. Everything is done in the same way as in the first case, but this time the eyes, beak and ears are molded from plasticine. You can make an owl, consisting not of 1, but of 2 cones, one of which will serve as a head, and the other as a body. The parts are connected to each other with plasticine or adhesive.
Cone bear
Big cones are used to make such crafts. For the body, you will need 3 oblong large specimens, for the head - 1 piece, its shape should be round, so it is better to choose pine. For the upper legs, 2 round bumps are needed, for the lower legs, 2 elongated.
How to make a craft:
- First, the body of the big bumps is glued together. They stick arcs to each other.
- The head joins the body.
- The legs are glued.
- 2 black buttons are glued to the head as eyes.
- Semicircles for ear tabs and a round muzzle are cut out of the fabric. The cut fragments are glued in the right places.
- A small scarf is tied around the bear's neck. You can also sew a miniature hat or other wardrobe items.
Note! You can use various sticks for the paws of the bear, rather than oblong cones.
How to make a craft from cones - watch the video:
Making crafts from cones is not only an educational activity for all family members, but also real creativity. Natural eco-friendly material allows you to create unique interior items, holiday and New Year decorations and interesting crafts. By working with buds, your child will be able to develop imagination, improve their applied skills and get acquainted with new techniques for working with natural materials.
