Frosted Holiday Pine Cones Tutorial

I saw these lovely acorns on Carolyn's Homework and was so inspired I decided to try out the same technique on pine cones.  Thank goodness I had tons left over from last year!

Here's how I made them:

Materials:

Pine Cones

Spray Paint

Acrylic Craft Paint

Foam Brush

Modge Podge, or Elmer's Glue

Epsom Salt

Step 1:  Wash and dry your pine cones. You can even bake them in the oven to make sure they're really clean :)

Step 2: Give the pine cones a coat of spray paint in the color of your choice.  Let dry.

Step 3: Lightly brush various colors of acrylic craft paint onto the tips of the pine cones and let dry.
 (This is optional. The pine cones still look great without this step, but this gives them a little extra something.)

Step 4:  Brush on some Modge Podge or Elmer's Glue onto the tips and bottom of the pine cone.  

Step 5:  Immediately roll the modge-podged pine cone in a bowl of Epsom Salt to "frost" the edges.

Step 6:  Let the modge podge and salts dry on the pine cone.  Gently shake the pine cones to remove loose salt.

Now that I've made all these little beauties, I'm trying to figure out how best to use them.  A wreath maybe?  These can be messy so I'm not sure. I may just leave some out in a nice bowl on the table instead :)