Glue, Glitter & Pinecones

I’m sure everyone has made glittery pinecones before at some time or another – after all they’re not rocket science, but the idea is so simple, and we had so many pinecones that my elder son had collected, that I thought we’d make some.  We have a very minimal, artificial twiggy tree, so I thought they’d look good hung on that, though I think they would also look good either individually or grouped together in a bowl, as table decorations (a considerably cheaper alternative to Kirsty’s gilded pears, if anyone watched her Handmade Christmas!)

I thought it was a simple enough activity for my 3 and 5 year olds to join in – and in theory it is. The 5 year old made quite a few, but unfortunately the just turned 3 year old got bored after doing just one and decided it would be much more fun to be disruptive by throwing the glitter around.  The elder one then decided to try and make glitter glue by pouring the glitter into the glue (I can see his logic, but it was a criminal waste of both, creating just a lumpy useless mess).  Nevertheless, I’m quite pleased with our creations – that is I’m pleased with the glittery pinecones, which are quite effective, but not so pleased with the mess we made.  We used an awful lot of glitter, and it is now EVERYWHERE and probably will be for a long time, in spite of my best efforts to clear up.  I suspected that this is what would happen, but somehow the reality always seems to be worse than my expectations!