How cute are these little deer? Just pine cones, sticks, and glue, add a red pom pom nose or a jingle bell, couldn’t be easier. The kids will love helping find the perfect pine cones and sticks!!
Materials:
- Pine cones of different sizes, and not broken or too old
- Sticks and branches for legs and antlers
- Glue: Hot glue or any strong holding clear glue
- Scissors and or small branch clippers
- Optional: gloves, bells, ribbon, small ornaments, small birds, red pom poms
Directions:
Time for a pine cone hunt, you do want to be picky picking your pine cones! You do not want them too old, falling apart or broken, you also want different sizes, I like the head to be smaller than the body! For the legs and antlers, I cut a branch from one of the oak trees (it needed to come down), and cut the ends for the branches for the antlers and the thicker straighter branches for the legs. I did let them dry out for about 2 days! If you are using branches that have fallen to the ground, check to make sure they are still in good shape, and not too old!
My box of branches….ready to go!
For the legs you want them somewhat straight, and the same size (thickness) for all 4 legs. Cut off any small branches off. Do not cut them too short, wait and cut them to the size of your deer pine cone, mine were 4” to 4/12″ long!
Have different sizes and shapes of end branches for the antlers.
Match up the pine cones, and find the pair that looks the best together. I like the head (pine cone) smaller than the body.
You may need to wear gloves when gluing! I use hot glue, it’s just quicker, but if the kids want to help (please be careful using hot glue around children) but if they are willing to hold the pieces together while the glue sets…why not (try Weldbond glue)! For the deer body, as you see in the picture above, the head (pine cone) goes one way, the smaller end is the nose, and the body (pine cone) the other way. Find the best spot for both pine cones, where you can push them together and get a good hold, now that you have a good spot, pull them apart and glue, and hold them in place until the glue has set.
See how the two pine cones are pushed down together.
For the legs, before you glue, find just the right spot, 2 for the front legs and 2 back legs. Cut the leg branch to the right size and glue ( about 4” to 4 1/2” long).
Make sure your deer can stand on its own!
Now for the antlers, pick 2 branches, and fit them to the top of the larger end of a pine cone, pushing into the pine cone for a good fit. Make sure the antlers do not make the deer top heavy, if the deer falls over, the antlers are too large and or too heavy. Now glue antlers into pine cone.
Done…now maybe a red pom pom nose, tie on a jingle bell, or small ornament!
How about silver spray paint?
Maybe add a little bird in a nest, and jingle bell.
Are you inspired?
