Kids Crafts: Pinecone Creatures

One afternoon, Ana and I sat together when Oggie was taking his brief power nap, and pored over some arts and crafts books we have. We do this once in a while for inspiration. Sometimes, just looking at something sparks an idea and that is all it takes to make an otherwise dull afternoon seem magical.

Anyway, she zoomed in on the pinecone critters idea. Only, we didn't have pinecones handy. So, over the next few days, when we went for walks, she diligently hunted and gathered pinecones of many different shapes and sizes. And when she had over a dozen interesting ones, I set out the materials she needed and let her have a go at it.

Many sites on the web have good instructions for making various animals using pinecone. Some are fairly easy, some are quite involved. Martha Stewart has a few that seem quite interesting for older kids (read: me) to do.

I didn't want to assist/direct too much and wanted to let Ana create whatever she liked, even if they don't quite resemble the penguin or moose or owl or turkey or peacock or chick that she intended.

Items Used: Pinecones, tempera paints, pipe cleaners, feathers, pom-poms, googly-eyes, glue.

It takes a while from start to finish as we have to wait for the paint to dry. Thankfully, it was a warm sunny day, and she decided to paint them all first and set them to dry. By the time she was done painting the last one, the first pinecone was dry and ready to be made into something.

The first few critters seemed like specimens from The Island of Dr. Moreau and I held back my urge to "fix" them for her. Since there is no set rule and we weren't trying to get fancy, it turned out all right.