DIY Projects & Crafts How to Make Pinecone Flowers We turn pinecones into lustrous golden-brown blossoms, perfect for table decorations and gift embellishments. By Martha Stewart Editors Martha Stewart Editors An article attributed to "Martha Stewart Editors" indicates when several writers and editors have contributed to an article over the years. These collaborations allow us to provide you with the most accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive information available.The Martha Stewart team aims to teach and inspire readers daily with tested-until-perfected recipes, creative DIY projects, and elevated home and entertaining ideas. They are experts in their fields who research, create, and test the best ways to help readers design the life they want. The joy is in the doing. Editorial Guidelines Updated on June 30, 2020 Share Tweet Pin Email Lay your eye level with the scales of the pinecone and you'll find that each one is as beautifully wrought as a flower petal. This resemblance inspired us to create pinecone crafts. It's easy to achieve the transformation from cone to bloom for this pinecone-based project. You'll need to coax blossoms from your finds with floral supplies: cutters, wire, and glue. When you place these fall crafts alongside the season's bounty, you'll find that nature has come up with some wonderful decorating ideas. What You'll Need Materials Pinecones Tacky glue Cardstock Flower cutting scissors Floral wire Small bowl Cardboard box Floral tape Decorative centers Stamp pad Cone scales Decorative center for each bloom Instructions Identify the best pinecones and decorative centers for your project: Eastern white pinecones have long scales; brown, natural canella berries are good centers for flat blooms. The tiny cones of the Sabulosum tree are ideal for delicate flowers. Use snipped cloves or the top of a poppy pod for centers. Douglas fir cones result in plump blossoms; tamarack buds can be used as centers or as buds. For zinnia-like florets, use blue spruce cones combined with rice grass as centers. Norway spruce cones can be layered to create big flowers; dried weeping grass makes pretty tufted centers. Next, remove the scales from the pinecones and using the floral cutters, remove the pinecone's base. Starting at the cone's bottom, slip one blade of the cutters behind a scale and snip it off. Continue, working upward until all of the scales have been removed and only the stem remains. To assemble the pinecone flowers, fill a small bowl with the scales. You'll need a cardboard box (at least 4 inches square) with a hinged lid for your work surface. Snip 4 inches of the floral wire and form a small hook on one end. From cardstock, cut a disk a bit larger than the desired size of the bloom's center. Secure the disk to the box top by poking the wire through both, letting the hook rest in the center so the wire won't fall through. Next, using tacky glue, attach the scales in a flower shape to the disk; the hook will become covered with glue. For a fuller blossom, add another layer inside of the first, using smaller scales, adding up to five layers for larger blooms. Use tacky glue to attach one or more of the cloves or the tiny plant parts in the center; let it dry, and remove the bloom from the box. To give the pinecones an all-over sheen, gently press each flower face-down into a golden stamp pad. To burnish only the tips, press the edges into the pad. To create a stem, wrap the wire in brown floral tape starting at the base of the blossom; or cut off the wire, if desired, for a stemless bloom. To make the buds and the leaves for a vine, attach tamarack buds and large scales to 4 inch-long wires: Wrap the floral tape around the wires and the bases of the bud or scale, adding tacky glue where necessary. Cut a piece of heavy floral wire as long as the desired length of the vine. Alternate florets with buds and leaves: Lay the stem against the floral wire, wrap it in place with brown floral tape, lay the next against the wire, wrap it, and so on until the vine is complete.