Tuesday's Sappy Tip

I've mentioned, once or twice, that I enjoy crafting with pine cones.  They're so plentiful near our home, and what could be better than FREE craft supplies?  (Let me know if you want me to send you some)

 The trouble with crafting with pine cones is, well, they can be a little...sappy.  No, I don't mean that they're over-emotional (that would be me)--I'm referring to that sticky stuff that functions in a tree in much the same way blood functions in animals, carrying water and nutrients to the various parts of the tree.  If you get sap on your skin, it's really tough to get it off, and then you start sticking to everything.  And it's pretty much impossible to pick up one of the cones from our white pines without getting sap on your fingers.  Yuck.

A few weeks ago, when we made our little Christmas trees out of pine cones, I figured it wouldn't be much of an issue because I was painting them.  I thought the paint would cover the sap and it wouldn't be sticky any more.  I was wrong.  Yuck.

So I knew that if I was going to be making anything else with white pine cones, I was going to need to find a way to de-sap-ify them first.  Enter today's tip, from the Pine Cone Lady.  To remove sap from pine cones, place them on a foil lined baking sheet and bake at 220*F for 20-30 minutes.  According to the Pine Cone Lady, not only does this remove the sap, but it will kill any bugs that may have taken up residence in your cones as well.  Thank you so much for pointing out that my cones (which have been sitting in a paper bag in my living room for the past 2 months) may be infested, Pine Cone Lady.

It really worked.  There was still shiny stuff on our pine cones when we were done, but it wasn't sticky any more.  I am so relieved!  This opens up whole new possibilities that I wasn't willing to try before due to the stickiness.  Watch out world!

As for the fate of these de-sap-ified cones--you'll have to come back later in the week to see what we did with them.

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Reminder--today's the last day to enter the Amazon.com gift card giveaway.  Good luck!