Tons of beautiful pinecones are falling off my trees and thought they would be neat to make into some type of ornament. Ideas.......... My mind is a blank and all I see are the ones my mil has spraypainted tacky colors!

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11073

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10118

Dd put them in tiny little terracotta pots (she used clay to stick them in), painted them white and glued little beads on. I think she might have used some glitter glue, too. Anyway, they came out looking like tiny little Christmas trees. She gave them to her dance teacher, Sunday School teacher, etc.

Gnomes use the scales from the pinecones for roofing their houses. We're going through a gnome craze here, so this is fresh on my mind. You could get a cardboard birdhouse form from a craft store and glue the scales on the top of the house as shingles, maybe decorate the rest with bark or moss or twigs. It would make a cute little fairy or gnome house.

We used to have a wreath made totally of pinecones. I think it had a wire foundation. They had been left natural -- no paint or glitter. It could be dressed up with ribbon.