Making your own scented pine cones

Speaking of pine cones, which we were just yesterday, I always love it when the scented pine cones appear in the grocery stores.  Cinnamon perfumes the produce aisles and gets me in the mood for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm usually tempted to buy these scented cones, but I invariably talk myself out of it because we have acres of woods at our place and free pine cones are literally ours for the taking. 

I often do pick up pine cones from our property and I especially love to gather the tiny hemlock cones to use in Christmas crafting. 

The one caveat in crafting with natural cones is to make sure they are not harboring any insects.  To that end, when you bring harvested cones home, be sure to bake them (on a foil-lined cookie sheet) in a 300º oven for half an hour to kill any insects, before crafting with them.  This procedure also has the added benefit of opening the pine cones up in an attractive way.

If the pine cones you've found have pitch on them, this baking maneuver will give them a pretty glaze as the pitch melts.  An added bonus is that when dry, the pitch will no longer be sticky to the touch.  

You can read more of my tips and ideas for crafting with natural cones here.

Since I so enjoy using pine and hemlock cones in crafting, I was delighted to see a post from Yvonne at Stonegable about making one's own scented cones using essential oils like cinnamon, clove, orange, etc.  Read her inspiring post here: How to Make Beautifully Scented Pinecones.  Yvonne talks you through the process of making these and makes it so simple.

Pick up a few pine cones this summer if you have opportunity and make some of these for use at the holidays.  You will be glad you did!