Snow-Covered Pinecone Centerpiece

If you are anything like me you have searched Pinterest for creative decorations and pinned hundreds of inspirational ideas. When you find it comes time to make these projects many amazing photos lack fall short when it comes to what they used. Well I have found countless holiday and Christmas Wedding decorations and have fallen in love with the simple and stunning pinecones and snow decorations.

Here is my favorite pin: a large vase with snow and pinecones.  It has just enough snow scattered around the base to create a truly stunning, classy and simple decoration.

See more Pinecone & Snow Holiday Decorations on Pinterest!

Unforunately, the pinecone and snow centerpiece pictured above didn’t link back to a tutorial; it only had the photo, so my search for the supplies to create my own began. I found wonderful scented pinecones at just about every store. The best deal was $4.99 at my local grocery store for a large bag of pinecones. The vase was also an easy purchase at Michael’s craft store, with my 40% off coupon it only cost $6.99 and looked pretty similar to my inspiration photo above.

Being a few weeks before Christmas it seemed like I should be able to find fake snow in every store but all I could find was pretty pricey plastic snow that looked like shredded plastic grocery bags. No light fluffy snow at all. I hate plastic, fake-looking anything, so my options were less than impressive and many stores said I could order it online but what if the same shredded plastic bag snow showed up? So I got creative about thought about what I could possibly use for “snow”… FOOD! I ran to the cooking aisle and searched for cheap white powered sugar which I could buy a lot of and use as snow.

Now beware, not all food is a good idea. First off, sugar is always a bad idea. You never want to pour mounds of sugar on the table or anywhere really because you don’t want to attract any uninvited guests, like ants. Next I thought flour, well then realized I would have “clouds” of snow blanketing everything in sight including the person setting up the centerpiece, and who would possibly want to set up and clean it up? It would be such a mess.

Then I can across a great idea – salt – and happened to find super cheap store brand Kosher salt. It looked snow-white, so I picked up a good-size box of salt that looked to have white color and hopefully would give the same effect without the huge price tag of ordering fake snow online.

To make this centerpiece it was quite simple you will need the following:

Materials:

• 1 large vase
• several pinecones
• 1 1/2 cups kosher salt

Estimated cost: Approximately $9 per centerpiece 

Here is the break down for the cost for this centerpiece: The vase was $6.99 (saved 40% with coupon), pinecones were $1.24 (1/4^th of the bag), salt  used as the snow was approximately $. 65 ($2.59 for the box and I only used about 1 ½ cups salt to make the centerpiece; the 48-oz box would be enough to make 4 centerpieces) for a total centerpiece cost of $8.88.

Instructions:

1) Pour a little salt in the bottom of the vase to cover the bottom.

2) Place the pinecones in the vase to your liking; I prefer placing the pinecones rather than just dumping them in to get the best effect.

3) Then pour a little more salt over the top to give the pinecones a snow-covered look.

4) Last sprinkle the remaining salt on the tablecloth around the outside of the vase.

There you have it a super simple snow-covered pinecone centerpiece made with salt.

PLEASE NOTE:  Salt can kill plants and flowers so be advised: DO NOT USE SALT WITH PLANTS OR FLOWERS.

I love the idea and of using pinecones as decorations and if you are lucky enough to live near pine trees you could collect all the pinecones for free. You can also add pinecones to the back or chairs for an added touch. You can tie some together to make bunches to hang on doors or around for added decorations. I created a Pinterest board or all these great pinecone pins. Feel free to check out all the pinecone and snow pins here: http://pinterest.com/christa00/pinecone-snow-holiday-decorations/