*Love is in the Air*, or at least on your front door, with this beautiful Pine Cone Heart Wreath. This nature inspired DIY makes for a perfect piece of Valentine’s Day decor and makes a huge statement with the Pink Ombre painted pine cones. For as beautiful as this wreath is, you’d never know it’s made with all natural and recycled materials. Love is definitely in the air with this gorgeous natural wreath!
This Valentine DIY is part of a collaboration with 3 of my other crafting friends over on Instagram, and boy have they WOW’d me with their projects! I don’t know if it’s the current world circumstances or what, but we could all use a little more L-O-V-E in our lives, and this Pine Cone Heart Wreath brings just that!
Cutting the pine cones can seem intimidating at first glance, but it’s actually super easy as long as you have one thing…good quality garden sheers. With nice sharp sheers, the pine cones are fairly easy to cut, but it depends on the size of your pine cones for exactly how much force you have to use to cut through. The first time I cut pine cones I used the sheers that I already had on hand, and it was nearly impossible since they were older, cheapo ones I’d gotten from Walmart. With a friends recommendation, I upgraded to these ones from Amazon, and OMG did it make a world of difference!
I’m a little but obsessed with using Pine Cones in my crafts and decor. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my many many neighborhood park pine cone hauls, it’s that you must clean and prepare them first before crafting! That is unless you’d like to host a sleep over for a family of Daddy Long Legs, eek! You can read the exact steps I take to clean and prepare my pine cones and bake the bugs out.
If you are L-O-V-E-ing this wreath but thinking “Gee I wish there were pine cones where I live”, no fear! You can get them for fairly cheap on Etsy, or even good ‘ole Amazon. That way, you don’t have to worry about cleaning them and you can get right to crafting.
This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a cent more!)
Supplies Needed to Make a Pink Ombre Painted Pine Cone Heart Wreath
- Pine Cones – Cleaned and prepared or store bought
- Variety of Pink paint colors – Bright Red, Candy Pink, Barn Red, Bright Magenta, Fruit Punch, Pink Eraser (All Apple Barrel Acrylic)
- Large piece of cardboard
- Garden sheers – I highly recommend these HyleJhJy 8″Sheers they cut like butter!
- Metal heart embellishments (optional)
- Glue gun
How to Make a Pine Cone Heart Wreath for Valentines Day
Follow the below easy steps to make a beautiful Pink Ombre Painted Pine Cone Heart Wreath!
Clean and prepare the pine cones
If you bought your pines from any store such as Etsy, you don’t have to worry about cleaning them because that has been done for your. But if you’ve collected pine cones from nature, make sure to thoroughly clean them in warm water and vinegar, and then bake the bugs out! You can read the full instructions on exactly how I clean and prepare my pine cones to get beautifully bloomed cones.
Cut the heart shape out of cardboard
You can freehand draw the heart since it doesn’t have to be perfect. You won’t be able to tell at all once the pine cones are glued on, my pic above is proof of that!
After you cut out the initial heart shape, draw another heart inside leaving about a 2″ frame, and cut that out as well.
Cut the pine cones in half with garden sheers
To cut them, just find an opening that you can wiggle the sheers into, and using both hands squeeze down until they cut all the way through. If you can, I’d recommend doing this outside because this step makes a mess, and the pine cone scales go flying everywhere and leave dirt and debris behind. At the very least, you’ll want to put an old tablecloth or garbage bag down to keep your surface clean and protected.
One other thing to note is that if you have very large pine cones, you may want to actually cut them into thirds so that they fit better on your cardboard when gluing them to the wreath. You want them to be more short and fat than you do tall and skinny or they won’t look quite right once painted and glue. Several of my pine cones were huge, so I cut them into thirds and used the pieces that were just the right size/shape.
A you’re cutting the pine cones, it helps to begin arranging them onto the heart shape so that you know how many you have to cut to get the shape and sizes that you want to fill the wreath, because some pieces you may not be able to utilize.
Paint the cardboard heart Pink Ombre
This doesn’t have to be perfect by any means, you just don’t want to leave it plain cardboard because the color may peek out from behind the pine cones once they are glued on.
Paint the pine cones in Ombre shades of pink
To make the various shades of pink, I started with the darkest pink and added some red/brick to make it even darker. As I transitioned to the lighter shades I would mix each pink with the darker shade that came before it to make a smooth transition to the lightest pink, which I mixed with some white.
Arrange the pine cones into the heart shape before painting them, so that you know exactly what pieces you will paint each color.
Glue the Ombre pink painted pine cones onto the cardboard heart wreath frame
I suggest gluing from the bottom and then from the top, and meeting in the middle to ensure all the pieces fit nice and snuggly onto your DIY cardboard wreath form.
Once all the pine cones are glued and you have a completed Pine Cone Heart Wreath, you can add whatever embellishments you’d like. You can leave it nice and simple just as it is, or you can even add a pretty bow.
Add any embellishments you’d like to the Pine Cone Heart Wreath
I found this Valentine Dollar Tree door knob hanger, and decided to cut off the mini metal hearts and glue them to the top middle pine cone to dangle in the center of the wreath. I thought it gave it a little something and was the perfect touch without overdoing it (I’m known for going a little overboard and doing things “extra”).
What do you think of this gorgeous Pine Cone Heart Wreath!? As perfect as it is for Valentine’s Day, this Wreath could really be used as a door hanger year round, or even hanging above the mantle with some family photos. Wherever you decide to display this nature masterpiece, it’s sure to WOW anyone who see’s it!
If you’re not part of our Craftspiration Facebook group, join in on the fun and post a pic of your completed DIY crafts, I just love to see all your creative creations!
Until Next Time…
Stay Crafty San Diego!
Love this Pink Ombre Pine Cone Heart Wreath? Make sure to PIN it to your Valentines Day Craft Board!
