5 of the simplest and most beautiful DIY crafts from pine cones for the New Year 2025

Nowadays, you can buy a wide variety of decorations for New Year's interior design. Every day, the industry offers an increasing number of different stickers for windows, garlands and Christmas tree balls, shiny tinsel and themed banners with holiday greetings. All this can be easily found on the shelves of souvenir shops and regular supermarkets.

Conifer cones are a great material for New Year's creativity!

Hand-made items are increasingly coming back into fashion. It has become preferable to make New Year's decorations with your own hands. In the abundance of synthetics and plastic, people began to give preference to natural materials, because they began to worry about their health. The most suitable material for the season are spruce and pine cones.

Many different decorations can be made from pine cones. Christmas wreaths, decorative Christmas trees, and holiday garlands will decorate your home and delight your guests. In addition, such crafts can be used as gifts for family and friends.

Idea #1: Pine Cone Wreath

DIY New Year's Golden Pine Cone Wreath

Such a wreath is considered to be the most traditional New Year's decoration for a house. However, we borrowed this tradition from Europeans and Americans. They decorate their front doors with such wreaths before the holidays to show their respect to their guests. Houses with such decorations become more elegant and festive.

Cone wreaths can also be used for interior decoration. They are hung on the walls as a panel, or placed in the center of the New Year's table with candles.

Materials for a wreath of pine cones: pine or fir cones, wide satin ribbon, thick wire for the frame, plastic beads with holes through which the wire can easily pass, glue gun, acrylic white paint or artificial snow, small Christmas tree balls.

Step-by-step instructions for making a wreath of pine cones

Making a wreath of pine cones step by step

  1. The wire frame will be the basis for the wreath. It is easier to make it from an old wire hanger, bending it into a circle, and in the end you will have a ready-made hook for attaching the wreath to the door. You will need to bend a circle from the wire and separately attach a hook for hanging.
  2.  Use a glue gun to attach a bead to each pine cone. It would be better to use eye screws for this, but not every home has a drill with a thin drill bit, because you need to make a hole in each pine cone.
  3. We collect cones on the wire, string them so that the cones are randomly facing in different directions. This way the wreath will be voluminous. Cover the finished wreath with acrylic paint or artificial snow.
  4. Decorating the craft. All that's left is to attach a jar of wide satin ribbon using a glue gun. The cone wreath is ready. But if you want, you can decorate it to your taste. For example, with Christmas tree balls, or attach beads between the cones, add red berries.

Idea #2: Pine Cone Garland

Not only pine cones, but any cones are suitable for crafts

Pine cones are great for making New Year's garlands. It is better to prepare a sufficient number of them in advance.

Materials for the garland: pine cones, strong rope, gold foil, glue, brush, loops, pliers.

Making a garland of pine cones step by step

Stages of making a garland of cones

1. Screw hooks into the top of each cone using pliers.

2. You need to go along the edges of the cone scales with a brush and glue, then wrap it in gold foil so that it is imprinted. The same effect will be achieved if you spray the cone with gold paint from a can or paint it with gold acrylic. It all depends on what you have at hand.

3. All that's left is to take a rope and string each cone, and to keep them from sliding into a pile, tie a knot above each one. The New Year's garland of cones is ready!

Idea #3: Miniature Christmas tree made from a pine cone

You can make a whole spruce forest from the opened cones!

Cones are a small miniature of a large Christmas tree. It is not difficult to make this resemblance a decoration for the New Year holidays. Decorate with beads and rhinestones, sprinkle with artificial snow and a whole winter pine forest will appear in your home.

Materials: wine corks, pine cones, green and white gouache, glue gun, beads, rhinestones, old jewelry, buttons or other accessories, satin ribbons, tassels, a can of artificial snow, a sheet of thin foam, nail polish with large glitter.

Even a child can handle this task!

Step by step growing of pine forest:

1. Cut wine corks into 2-centimeter-thick circles. These will be the future tree stumps.

2. Cover the cones with green paint. This process will be faster with a spray can, of course.

3. Attach the corks to the pine cones using a glue gun.

4. The decoration of the Christmas trees can be very diverse. You can cover some of the trees with artificial snow or white paint. Decorate the tops with stars made of thin foam or other similar material. Add shine to your trees with glitter varnish. Use a glue gun to attach decorations in the form of beads, rhinestones, old jewelry details, chains, etc. to other trees. Miniature Christmas trees can be used either together or separately. In any case, the composition can be completed with cotton wool and foam crumbs to imitate snowdrifts.

Idea #4: Pine Cone Ball

Spectacular New Year's Ikebana from Cones and Fir Branches

This craft will look beautiful on a chandelier or cornice. This composition is also perfect for decorating the center of a New Year's table.

Materials and tools: pine cones, glue gun, foam ball, nippers, artificial Christmas tree branches, dried branches with berries, satin ribbon for fastening, glitter varnish, white acrylic paint, brush.

Pine Cone Ball - Step by Step Instructions

The sequence of actions consists of the following steps:

1. Paint the edges of the cone scales with white paint. Let dry.

2. Branches with berries also need to be decorated by applying glitter varnish. If there are no ready-made branches with berries, then large red beads can be attached to any branches.

3. Use nippers to cut the artificial tree into small branches.

4. Tie the foam ball with a satin ribbon. Don't forget to leave long ends so that you can later attach the ikebana to a chandelier or curtain rod.

5. Fill the entire space on the ball with cones, leaving no gaps.

6. Fill the gaps where you still couldn't cover the surface of the ball with spruce branches and twigs with berries or beads. A live tree is not suitable for this, as it will not last long. The needles of the tree fall off very quickly from the heat.

7. Place the finished ball on a cornice, chandelier or door.

Idea #5: Pine Cones in Silver

Preparing cones for decoration and crafts

Cones covered with silver or gold paint with some addition in the form of ribbons or fir branches can be used to decorate window openings or a Christmas tree, complement the central composition of the table, make part of the table setting, or give as a New Year's gift. Such a craft will be an excellent addition instead of a postcard and a souvenir to remember this holiday.

Materials for crafts: pine cones, brushes, gold and silver paint, satin ribbons, organza ribbons, glue gun, artificial Christmas tree branches, thin wire, beads, rhinestones, wire cutters, needle and thread, cinnamon sticks, twine, dried orange slices, cloves, anise.

You can also attach other natural materials to the pine cones.

Step by step decoration of pine cones

Step 1. Treat the cones with gold or silver paint. If the coating is not dense, apply a second layer. If you don’t have such paints, you can use white, and then add glitter to it.

Step 2. Make the required number of lush bows from satin ribbons. If the cones are to be used as pendants, the bows should have long tails. The bows can be stitched with thread.

Step 3. You can string beads on the wire and secure them with a glue gun so that they don’t roll into a pile. Treat with paint or glitter.

Step 4. Cut artificial spruce branches. Remember that the natural one will quickly fall apart.

Step 5. Decorate the cones with rhinestones

Step 6. Tie together a few sprigs of cinnamon and a circle of dried orange. Add star anise and cinnamon.

Step 7. Attach spruce branches, a lush bow, branches with berries or wire with beads, and anything else you like to the tail of the cones. Arrange the elements as your muse tells you, and unusual cones are at your disposal!