Pine Cone Fun: Elves, Trees, and Scenery

While at the park today, the boys found some nice pine cones.
Had seen some crafty ideas for the pine cones so I suggested that if they would want to do so, they could make some items for the holidays.
Had pinned some pine cone ideas onto my Pinterest boards so it was easy to pull the pins up to show the boys...
Here are some of the images I had pinned:

Source: thewoolacorn.blogspot.com via Colleen a.k.a. Pinterest Mama on Pinterest

Source: christmasgeek.com via Colleen a.k.a. Pinterest Mama on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Colleen a.k.a. Pinterest Mama on Pinterest

Source: makeitdo.wordpress.com via Colleen a.k.a. Pinterest Mama on Pinterest

Aren't these projects darling?
See how easy it is to be inspired by Pinterest???
Thanks to The Wool Acorn, The Christmas Geek, Cottage Home, and Make It Do for their pine cone craft inspiration today!!!
There was one other pin featuring pine cone ornaments was originally from Etsy, and was then featured on the 4Ya Blog, but the artist who made these creations did not have them for sale anymore.

UPDATE: 
The Wool Acorn has both a free tutorial and a kit that you can buy to make the felted wool Pinecone Christmas decorations that she has created! These are so lovely!!! Her felted pinecones were featured in the Holiday Crafts Magazine. If you and your family like to needle felt, you will want to check out this kit, along with the other great needle felt kits that she sells. I just love her blog and her store!!!

Showing the boys these cute crafty images gave them an immediate visual reference for what they might possibly want to do with their pine cones.
Well, the both ended up making an elf, a tree, and some scenery.
They both constructed their elves and trees.
For the elves, they got to use a glue gun.
This is a tool that they do not use often, but that can be a great way to teach a child to work responsibly.
They both were very careful with using the glue gun.
Was there supervising, but they both did a super job without me having to interfere or to assist with using one.
The glue gun held the elves together much better than regular school type glue.
To make the elves, in addition to the glue gun and the replacement glue sticks, you will need:
small pine cones (we only have large ones near us, so for the small ones, we used some that were in a pine cone collection from Target),  pipe cleaners, an elf head, some tiny craft pom poms, and some misc. decorations.
For the elf head, you can make it by using a wooden bead and markers, but we had some little elf heads from IKEA.
To make the pine cone trees, you need a rather large pine cone, some school type liquid glue, and some tiny pom poms.
For the table display decoration, you can use an old plastic plate or platter, or else a paper one, along with some cotton batting, some glue, some glitter glue, some pom poms and sequins. My boys also decided to add some pipe cleaner wrapped wooden pieces to their plates. They were super easy to do.

Here are some photos of the boys and their art project:

Have you made some holiday crafts with pine cones?

Have you made some Christmas crafts with mixed elements, both natural materials and artistic ones?

Do you let your children use real tools such as glue guns?

Would love to hear your feedback on this.

Please feel free to leave a link to your blog post if it ties in with making pine cone or other crafts for the holidays.
This post is linked up with Sunday Showcase co-hosted at Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas and Classified Mom.
Be sure to pop by Bern's and Aimee's lovely linky party to see all of the other neat child centered projects and ideas for the holidays!