Make Pine Cone Owls for Earth Day!

Earth Day is this Friday, and I decided that I would clean up my back yard for the occasion. Where do all these pine cones come from? I saw these adorable little owls and I knew I just had to make them. My yard is over powered by pine cones and I was wondering how I could use them to make something cute while spending time with the kiddo. Now I have the perfect solution. With some pine cones, felt, pipe cleaners and glue you can have yourself a flock of adorable (and super inexpensive) little owls. Make them all completely unique and they will make fabulous gifts for anyone who loves a little knick knack.

As mentioned earlier, here's what you''re going to need for this craft:

• felt
• pine cones
• pipe cleaners
• glue

Felt is awesome. It has so many purposes and is so easy to work with. It is also quite inexpensive and easy to come by. Chances are your local dollar store or craft store will have everything you need, and a quick walk to the park will get you some pine cones. Use whatever colours you like for these owls, but you will find that soft colours like green, grey, white and brown will lost most natural. You can also easily add a ribbon to each pine cone if you wish to hand the owls from your tree.

So gather up your materials and let's get started. Make your owls unique of course, but for a general rule of thumb you probably want to cut out shapes for their eyes, face, wings and eyebrows. There are so many ways to make owls look cute or spooky - whatever you prefer. The wings are a tear drop shape, and the eyes are circles of course. Don't forget the beak and eye brows.

Once you have your shapes cut out, glue the little pieces together to form your finished eyes, wings and more. Then you can glue the wings and face to the actual pine cone. Then you can make feet from thin brown pipe cleaners (or mix it up and use any colour) and glue them to the bottom of your pipe cleaner. If you are planning on having your owl stand on your dresser or somewhere else in the house, I suggest you make it a tail as well. The tail will help your owl stay standing and well balanced.

The kids will even love helping you put the little characters together. Just be careful that they don't burn themselves if you do decide to use a hot glue gun.

(Thanks liagriffith)