Marissa's Mommy Moments: Painting with Pinecones

Last week we went for a walk / strider around the pond near our house. Monkey found a few trees that had dropped a ton of pinecones on the ground, and like most children, he just had to collect some.

I told him that we could take them home but only if we used them for some art. Thankfully he thought this was a great idea!

I had seen this idea back in the fall here: http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2014/11/pinecone-painting-thanksgiving-turkey-craft.html

Supplies: pinecones, paint, paper, cardboard box (or baking sheet); optional - butterfly cutout, pipe cleaner, googly eyes, glue

I taped a piece of paper inside an old cereal box with one side cut off. You could also use a baking sheet with tall sides but with the cardboard box there is no clean up, just throw it right in the recycling!

Since we weren't using paint that we could squeeze out of the bottle, Monkey used popsicle sticks to drop paint onto the paper.

Once the paper had lots of globs of paint, Monkey threw in the pinecones.

Then it was time to shake!

Of course I was singing "shake it like a Polaroid picture" while Monkey shook the pinecones around. I can't help myself! But he loved it :)

Once the paper was thoroughly covered we took the pinecones out and put them aside on a piece of paper towel.

I wasn't in love with the way the painting looked. The places where Monkey had dropped the paint were really obvious, and the parts in between those globs where the pinecones had covered looked much better.

We decided to try again. This time, instead of putting the paint directly on the paper, we put it onto the pinecones.

This definitely took the mess level up!! But it was worth it.

Once the pinecones we all painted we put them on the paper in the box.

Then Monkey shook the box around again.

This method turned out way better! In the photo below, the top painting is from when we put the paint directly on the pinecones, while the bottom painting is from when we put the paint onto the paper.