{Project: Glitter Pinecones}

I have always had a creative side and have waited many years to decorate my house with homemade goodies made by tiny hands. 

 Let's face it, most kids crafts are cheesy, made with tissue paper or toilet paper rolls and although you love it because your kid made it, it's just not beautiful to look at. 

Problem: how am I going to make a simple, beautiful Christmas craft with my toddler? 

Solution: when in doubt, look to nature. Everything out there is unique and beautiful in its own right. Lucas is a big fan of exploring the great outdoors. He loves to listen to the birds, dig in the dirt and collect "treasures". One day, we were on the playground and Lucas began collecting pinecones! There are so many things to do with pinecones, but to make it toddler simple I decided to go with glue and glitter! Now this may sound like a disaster waiting to happen, but with a few of the right tools this project can be done with minimum mess. The trick is to keep everything contained. 

We contained the glue in an old frosting container and the glitter in tennis ball tubes. You can use anything as long as the top is as wide as your largest pinecone and it is recommended your glitter containers have tops. 

I was a little hesitant about doing this project with Lucas. Have you ever tried to use glitter with a toddler while taking pictures? I gave it a test run the night before, just to make sure everything was ready (and to snap a few pics incase it was glitter disaster the next day). As soon as Lucas was down the stairs the next morning he was interested what I had left on the counter. In all honesty, it went even better than I imagined! I had two containers of glitter ready to go to keep things moving along but much to my surprise Lucas loved dipping the pinecones in the glue and watching the glue drip off! He made 10 pinecones all by himself. He loved shaking the tubes and was thrilled as each pinecone came out even more beautiful than the last. We were going to make a few to decorate our house (I was hoping for 4 or 5) but now it looks like we will have enough for a few gifts too! If you are LuCky enough to be gifted a handmade ornament don't forget to act surprised! 

The finished products are beautiful, no matter how much glitter ends up on them! For those older LuCk followers, you can always paint the glue on with a paintbrush, use different colors etc. Another fun idea is pom poms! Leave the pine cones as is, or paint them green to look like mini Christmas trees with ormaments on them!