Pine Cone Zinnias

I love pine cones.  Since moving back to Midland in April of last year I've been picking them up because they are everywhere.  Papa has 3 big Japanese Pines that drop the most beautiful, large pine cones.  Most are 6 to 7 inches long with a circumference of about 11 inches at the top.  I literally have hundreds of these that I will be making swags for the holidays.

There are plenty of smaller ones from, what I believe are, Afghan pines.  They are smaller and these are the ones I used to make the zinnias.


Zinnias are one of my favorite flowers to grow then bring into the house all summer long.
I also love pine cones.  I ran across a photo of pine cones painted up as zinnias and I loved them.  It also seemed an easy enough craft for me to handle.


The color spectrum is so wide.  You can keep the color scheme true to flower colors or create your own color scheme;  I like the multi-colored scheme; the same I have in my garden.

I chose to prime mine with white acrylic paint from the craft store.

 

I chose a variety of acrylic colors and gave each "flower" two coats of paint.  With a little yellow and orange paint I gave each a little center.  A day after I finished painting them I gave them a couple coats of a clear, acrylic spray to shine them up a bit and protect their color.

 Once completely dry I used some heavy duty clippers and snipped the pine cones.  There are several ways you can snip these.  This one above, for example, was left with a 'tail' which would give it some support when stuck in with a bunch of other "flowers" in a bowl.  If you want to display them in a tall glass container you might want to snip the cone off flat where your color begins and place them in the jar facing out with the centers into the center.

I stuck mine in a wide mouthed bowl and set them on the coffee table.

And now I have a bowl full of flowers that I don't have to water.