Pine Cone Topiary Step-By-Step Tutorial

I saw a gorgeous pine cone topiary from Ballard Designs… but as with most things from that amazing store, the price tag was less-than awesome! Lucky for me, this was a piece of decor I knew I could recreate for a whole lot less. Here is how!

I enlisted the help of my mom who graciously gathered pine cones from her backyard in Washington and brought them with her to Texas where we were all having Thanksgiving. I had to let them dry out a bit before I could use them so they would open up, but they are seriously so pretty!

Even though this project was really easy to do, it was definitely time consuming! It took two nights to finish, but I just worked on it while I watched TV with my husband. It also took way more pine cones than I thought, so I ended up only making one. Here is how to do it:

Pine Cone Topiary Tutorial

MATERIALS NEEDED: 

• 6″ Styrofoam ball
• black garbage bag & twisty tie
• scissors
• pine cones
• hot glue
• white spray paint
• planter – I got mine at Hobby Lobby. It was $7.99 but on sale for half off!

(Sorry about the dark images. These were taken indoors at night.)

DIRECTIONS: 

1. Wrap a black garbage sack around your Styrofoam ball, twist the bag tight and tie it off with a twisty tie. Cut off the extra plastic from bag. This will keep the white from peeking through and help the pine cones adhere better.
2. Drench the tied end of the bag in hot glue to keep it from coming undone.
3. Grab the middle of the pine cone, and twist the bottom to create a “smaller” pine cone. Get rid of the bottom, you’ll only use the top. Make sure all your tops are about the same size to get a symmetrical ball.
4. Hot glue your pine cones onto the covered ball, starting at the top and working your way down until the whole ball is covered, then lightly spray paint with white spray paint.