Halloween Paper Pinecone

Halloween is by far one of my most favourite holidays. In fact, its second only to Christmas on my list. It has been made all the more special by the fact that my daughter was born mid-October. For her first birthday I'm planning a Halloween themed party and I thought it might be nice to make some decorations for the house.

I've made these lovely little paper pine cones before as Christmas tree decorations. They actually make quite nice gifts as well. There are very easy, and inexpensive but they do take a little bit of time to complete. I thought I would try a few using Halloween themed paper and colours rather than my traditional Christmas.

What you will need for this project: two sheets of 12x12 paper in contrasting colours (you can also make it a single colour if you wish), sheer ribbon (1/2" - 1" wide - about 1 yard), 3" Styrofoam balls, applique pins (short little pins), thimble, stamps to decorate as desired.

Step 1. Cut your two sheets of paper into strips 2" by 1". It is important to use paper-weight patterned paper and not cardstock weight.

Fold one side down, and then the other to form a triangle with the seam in the middle.

This part takes a bit of time but eventually you'll end up with two piles of little triangles. I do this in front of the television to cut down on the boredom factor of folding dozens of tiny triangles...

Using the applique pins, attach your foundation layer of triangles (seam side down) to the top of the Styrofoam ball. Put two tip to tip like so and then...

Add two more to make a square.

Pin the corners of each triangle down onto the foam ball. The corners will slightly overlap.

Then take four triangles from your contrasting colour and place them over the foundation row, pinning the bottom corners and leaving the top corner free. The tip of the new row should be lined up with the seam of the foundation row.

Your completed second row should look like this. Notice how the free points "stick out" from the foam ball on this row.

Continue adding rows in this manor - overlapping the row above and lining up the point of the new triangle with the seam between triangles of the row above it.

When you are about halfway down the ball add your length of ribbon. pin down each end on opposite sides using the applique pins (this could be three or four pins per side depending on the width of your ribbon). Make sure you leave enough ribbon loose at the top to form a loop for hanging.

Continue adding the triangles until the entire ball has been covered and only the loop of ribbon is free at the top of the ball. I find it gets harder and harder to push in the pins as you get closer to the end (as they are going through several layers of paper at this point). Use a thimble to save your fingers from wear and tear.

I added a little Halloween tag and a black ribbon tied in a bow at the base of my ribbon loop and voila! A handmade Halloween ornament.

Supplies: Paper (K&Company, Sandylion), applique pins, styrofoam ball, ribbon (May Arts), stamps (Papertrey Ink - Halloween Sweets I), nestabilities, cardstock (Bazzill)

Its stinky hot here tonight so I'm glad to be trapped in my craft room (in the basement). Its 87 degrees upstairs and the humidity is really high so you start to sweat just sitting around watching TV. As much as I love a sunny day, I'm hoping for some slightly cooler weather tomorrow...