Pine cone basket with lights

I got this idea for a basket filled with various shaped pine cones and Christmas lights years ago when I was at a craft fair.  It is an extremely easy and very inexpensive gift idea or home decor item.  All you need to do is go pine cone hunting with your kids and dig around for an old basket you have kicking around.

Warning: once you have your pine cones collected, place them into a garbage bag and spray them with spider killer! Did you know that spiders love to live in pine cones? I did not know this and I found this out the hard way. I hate spiders! 

So after all the spiders are gone :) start gluing, with hot glue, the pine cones into the basket. If you have holes in the side of your basket, like I did, start putting the lights around starting at the bottom. If you have a solid basket, you can fill the basket almost full and then start adding lights.

Note: I used just used an old set of mini lights but be aware these lights get pretty hot in confined spaces. My basket is very open and the heat can escape easily. I would have loved to use the new LED lights for this because they produce almost no heat. So just be aware of this when you have it on.

Keep piling the pine cones and lights until you are to the top of the basket. At this point try to hid the light chords as much as possible but they do not have to be 100% hidden.

Once the pine cones are to a height you like, add some dried baby's breathe flowers and red berries to hide the light chords you weren't able to hide with the pine cones.

Plug in the lights and add a bow. You are done! 

 

 What do you think?

Stephanie