SPRING: Pine Cone Carrots!

My sweet lifelong friend Kim came to So Cal on my birthday weekend, and even though it was to attend a concert, she made time to meet me for lunch. She gave me a gift that is just SO fun that I had to share it with you: I give you Pine Cone CARROTS! 

Kim and her guy J teamed up to gather pinecones on her Northern California property and transform them into carrots for her spring decor. Kim followed a tutorial but she can't recall where she found it - so I'm going to do my best to give you a quick rundown of the project.

Continue reading for a 'tutorial - lite'!dwk

Materials:
long pine cones - hemlocks are small, sugar pine like these are large
small fake fern plants . orange spray paint . hot glue . a drill with a 1/4 inch bit

Method:

Prepare your pine cones by making sure NO critters are in them!
Then pop them onto a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, then into a hot oven for about five minutes, just to make sure! Let cool completely.

Take them outdoors to spray paint them vibrant orange.
Kim used high gloss paint, which is perfect for long wear in outdoor decor. **PLEASE make sure you have ample air flow while spray painting if you do this in your garage!**
It will probably take two coats of paint to cover the pinecone surface well, spraying from multiple directions to cover every part.

After they are totally dry, use your drill to drill a hole about 1 inch deep in the TOP of each pinecone. (Kim credits J for this change to the original tutorial, which just had the green leaves hot glued on top.)

Insert the stem of one bunch of fake green leaves into the drilled hole to make sure it fits in far enough - if not, drill a bit deeper. Then add a few drops of hot glue to the hole, and insert the stem again. Hold in place for a few seconds as it dries.

That's it! Pretty easy, really! 

Kim took her finished carrots and placed them in a metal birdbath on her front porch, along with a sweet sign she picked up at Dollar Tree:

Back in 2021, I helped Miss Kim give her beautiful farmhouse a makeover, which included digging this metal birdbath out of a garage and putting it on her porch! I love that she updates & changes this lovely area of her home each season.

You can see the entire series of posts about her makeover here.


I took the finished carrots that she gave me and hung them on my white matlasse' pool noodle wreath. (click here for my tutorial post)

I tied some green garden twine around each stem and hung them separately on the metal wreath hook - the wreath was on it, I just slid the twine down between the wreath and the metal hook's front loop. (sorry, no close-ups on that part!)

The front carrot was a bit smaller, and was the last one I hung, so it would be centered over the other two. Then I wrapped a thick green ribbon around all three stems, and tied a bow. 

There's ONE caveat about these, which I discovered when driving home to wine country from near Disneyland with them in the car: They have a very strong odor.

The spray paint off-gasses (learn more about VOCs - Volatile Organic Compounds - HERE) definitely affected me in the car, even with them in a plastic bag and the A/C going. I would suggest using them only in your outdoor decor to allow that smell to dissipate a bit, and from affecting any sensitive family members or pets inside your home.

A safer alternative would be to use water-based spray paints instead, as they do not contain VOC components. (some suggestions HERE). 

When springtime is over, I might just find a way to use them in our tropical decor in the backyard rather than trying to store them in the garage where the off-gasses might be a problem. Can tikis have carrot tops?!! 

shared online:

Creatively Beth | creatively crafty link party #244 

Funky Junk Interiors | new upcycle ideas #775

Thank you for including my project in your feature, Donna! 


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