Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

You want to play with liquid plastic, you know you do!

By now I’m sure all you crafties out there already have your Christmas decorations put away, your winter-but-not-Christmas decorations still up and decorations leftover from your New Year’s Eve Dinner Party. 

That seven day gap between Christmas and New Years doesn’t leave much time for crafts, much less whole house decorations. But here’s a quick little craft that was just perfect for my New Year’s Eve dinner party.  

Here’s what you need:
 
Pinecones (one for each dinner guest or as many as you want!)
Plasti-dip black
Florist’s wire
Newspaper
Rubber gloves

 
A few notes: Plasti-dip is intended to use to recoat the handles of tools. It can be sprayed on, dipped on or painted on. While the spray is probably the easiest option, it’s also going to be pretty messy and probably not the best choice if you are working with kids. Painting on is better but I found that dipping was their favorite (and mine too!)  If you want to dip you’ll need to either find pinecones small enough to fit in the can or find a wider mouthed jar to transfer the dip to. And while all the types of pinecones that we tried looked great, those that were more open were definitely the best.

First find a place where the pinecones can hang to dry. A hanger hooked to a shelf or a lamp works well but look around the house and see what you can find. The paper towel holder in my kitchen worked perfectly for us. Cover the surface underneath your hanging spot with plenty of newspaper and cut a piece of wire for each pinecone that is long enough to wrap around the wider end of the pine cone and still have enough length so that it will hang a few inches above the newspaper.

Wrap the wire underneath the tines of the cone so that you can only see the piece that you’ll hang it from. Gently shake or stir the plasti-dip and remove the lid.  With their gloves on, let your kids lower the pinecone slowly into the plasti-dip. Once it is completely submerged, carefully lift it out, shaking a little to remove the excess plastic. Hold over the jar for a minute to catch the biggest drips and then let it hang to dry. If you want to add glitter, sprinkle a small amount about 10 minutes into drying time. The pinecones will be dry in about four hours.

The possibilities with this are almost endless. We plan on using them as place card holders but you could also pile them into a bowl, hang them garland style along your mantle or stairs or even add a little new years glitz to your tree. Plasti-dip also comes in other colors, including a custom color-making version, bringing other projects to mind. Think of blown eggshells for Easter or origami frogs for a child’s birthday party.
 
Be sure to clean the rim of the jar completely before replacing the lid and any leftover should be stored as you would any chemical.