Great Ideas for Using Pine Needles
Pine needles are a traditional material used to create Native American baskets and other crafts. Using pine needles for your crafts to create home decorations is a great way to bring a sense of personalized touch into your home décor. A pine needle bowl can serve great use on your coffee table or make a natural rustic centerpiece. The needles can be purchased in some craft stores but are sometimes quite expensive. Finding your own pine needles and making your own crafts is a great project for the whole family, because there is no right or wrong and it’s a great activity that includes all people of all ages.
Pine Needle Bowl
To create a pine needle bowl you will need the following items: a bowl template, plastic wrap, white glue, and of course your pine needles. Before beginning the project you may want to consider laying out your crafting surface with newspaper, working with pine needles and glue can become very messy. You will also want to take note that this craft should be used for decorative purposes only and if you would like to use it to serve food, you should use a glass bowl insert.
The first thing you will need to do is lay your bowl template upside down on the surface you are working on. Using the plastic wrap, begin by covering the surface. If you do not have plastic wrap you may also use foil wrap. In a separate dispensable bowl begin mixing the white glue with water. 2 parts glue to 1 part water. Be sure to keep the mixture thick so that it is not too runny. Once the glue mixture is complete, grab a handful of pine needles and mix them into the glue mixture. Mix them so that they are wet with glue but not soaked. Begin placing the glued pine needles onto your bowl form. You will want to consider the direction you place the needles. You can alter them to make a pattern or place them randomly. Repeat this last step until you have covered the entire bowl shape with the pine needles. Next you will need to leave the bowl to dry. Do not worry about the white glue because once it is dry it will become clear. Once you have let it sit for a while and you feel that it is completely dry, you can remove the pine needle bowl out from the bowl template. If the plastic sticks make sure you gently tear it away.
Use and Display
Once the project is complete, you can think about how you want to use it for display. You can create more pine needle bowls in different sizes and display them together. You can also use small pine cones or nuts to place inside the bowl as accent pieces. While it is not recommended that you place food inside of the pine needle bowl, you can always place a clear plastic bowl inside of the pine needle bowl. Make sure that the bowl you are placing inside fits deep enough so that it does not show from the outside. Once you have done this you are set to place all types of fruits or special treats inside the bowl for your family or guests to enjoy. Once you have your pine needle bowl you can always reuse it for different purposes during the holidays, for example during Halloween you can place candy inside for your neighborhood trick or treaters. The pine needles will look great and match the theme perfectly.
Other Pine Needle Crafts
Once you have completed the project you may be left over with a lot of pine needle pieces. Don’t just throw them away!The left over pieces of pine needles can be used for other fun crafts for your children. The pine needles can be braided and bent into different shapes to make great ornaments for Christmas trees or to hang in their room. You can also lay them out in front of your children along with some other tools like scissors, glue, and paper and see what types of interesting and fun ideas they come up on their own.
Whatever the craft, the uses of pine needles are endless.
