Homemade table decorations are a plus for the Thanksgiving table, especially those made by the children in the family. A fun and simple Thanksgiving turkey is easy to make using a pine cone as the body of the turkey. Collect pine cones during the fall from pine trees such as the Long Leaf or Short Leaf, Slash, and/or Loblolly pine trees. The pine cones from these trees are short and squatty pine cones with separations between the cone spines.
Material:
Pine Cones
White glue
Paper plates
Glitter
Brown and red pipe cleaners
Scissors
Instructions:
Step 1 – Squeeze a puddle of glue in the center of a paper plate.
Step 2 – Roll the pine cone in the glue and cover the ends of the spines.
Step 3 – Place a clean paper plate on the work surface. Rotate the pine cone over the paper plate and shake glitter over the entire cone. Sit the cone aside to dry for 30 minutes.
Step 4 – Wrap a brown pipe cleaner around the center of the pine cone to form legs. Place the legs approximately halfway between the fat and narrow ends of the pine cone. Bend the ends of the pipe cleaner at a 90 degree angle to form the turkey’s feet.
Step 5 – Place a brown pipe cleaner on a flat work surface. Coil one end of the pipe cleaner to look like a snail. Roll the pipe cleaner into a snail-like shape that is approximately three quarter inch in diameter. The straight end of the pipe cleaner is used to attach the head to the body.
Step 6 – Glue a one quarter inch googly eye on each side of the brown coil. Place the head in a safe location to dry for 15 minutes.
Step 7 – Place a red pipe cleaner on a flat work surface. Coil one end of the pipe cleaner to look like a snail approximately one quarter inch in diameter. Measure from the snail-like coil approximately one and one half inches and cut.
Step 8 – Insert the straight end of the cut red pipe cleaner through the outside coil of the brown pipe cleaner to form the waddle of the turkey. Bend and twist the end of the red pipe cleaner around the straight shaft to secure in place.
Step 9 – Sit the glitter covered pine cone on a flat work surface so the feet are down in a sitting position. Insert the straight end of the brown pipe cleaner in spines of the pine cone at the desired head location.
Resources:
Trees of Texas