How to Easily Clean & Prepare Pinecones for Crafts and Your Decor

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Pinecones, acorns, seed pods, antlers, cotton and other found treasures are wonderful frugal finds from nature to decorate your house inside and out; and the great news is that all you have to do is go out and find them. Today I am sharing how to clean pinecones to use for all of your crafts. 

Good morning friends, it is going to be a crazy few days while they continue to count the votes. So I am going to focus my energy at home. 

Pinecones are the perfect thing to use for holiday crafts but they are also the home to little creatures, dirt, dust and more. Today I am sharing how to clean and prepare your pinecones for whatever you want to make this holiday season. 

There are many ways to clean pinecones, including soaking them in solutions of vinegar, bleach and other cleaning solutions. I am lazy and I wanted to skip that, this method is all about baking off the dirt and bugs and only takes 90 minutes. 

How to Clean Pinecones Easily

1. Gather your pinecones.

2. With a brush, clean pinecones of dust, debris and needles. 

3. Place pinecones on a parchment lined baking tray, make sure to space them out so that the air can circulate around them. The parchment will help with the sap. 

4. Bake for 90 minutes on 200F. This will kill off all of the bugs, mold and other creatures. 

4. Remove pinecones from over, let cool and then use in all of your crafts. 

Note: A. Do not turn the heat on higher than 200F, pinecones will burn and could start a fire. The melted sap is a pain to clean off of your baking pan so be sure to use parchment paper. 

B. There are lots, and lots of other ways to clean your pinecones, I chose this way because I didn’t want to get mine wet, which causes them to close up and then takes way longer to bake them. 

C. If your pinecones and damp, like mine were, from being outside they will open up a lot from baking them. 

Pinecones can be strung together for make garland for the fireplace, to make a wreath, to place in bowls and baskets or in a table arrangement. 

You can also use your cleaned pinecones in or on any one of these great footed trays! Check out all of these beautiful trays made by some friends of mine. 

How to Use Scandinavian Decor as Holiday Table Inspiration -American School of Charm

Wood Pedestal Tray for a Farmhouse Christmas – Chalking Up Success

How to Make Footed Tray – Cottage in the Mitten

Christmas Tray DIY – Cottage on Bunker Hill

Quick Easy Way to Make a Footed Tray – From Farmhouse to Florida

Unique Footed Tray for Holiday Decor and Entertaining – J Dub by Design

DIY Wood Footed Tray – Modern on Monticello

How to Make a Footed Tray the Super Easy Way – Mrs. Coleman

How to Build a Rustic Footed Tray – MTB Home Living

Easy to Make DIY Farmhouse Table Riser – The Ponds Farmhouse

How to Make a Table Riser – Shop at Blu

How to Use Scrap Wood to Create a Pedestal Tray – Sonya Burgess

DIY Decorative Tray – Sydney and Co.

Have a great day!