DIY Cotton Stems

Super Simple DIY Cotton Stems
In Just 3 Easy Steps!

Love those cute little cotton stems? Yeah, me too!  It was love at first sight for me. I bought the very first ones that I saw. . .and then realized that I paid way too much. Ugh! So, I was thrilled to see some tutorials on how to make cotton stems at home. They are super easy, but I have created my own preferences on how to do these, so I thought I would share them with you.  However, the very best part of this project, is that it is pretty much FREE!! (And. . .who doesn’t like free?!)

Supplies:

• Twigs – any size that fit your vase or wherever you want to show off your cotton stems
• Pine cones – I prefer ones that have larger scales
• Cotton balls – just the plain ones, nothing fancy
• Hot glue gun & glue sticks
• Needle nose pliers (optional) for pulling scales off the pine cones

Gather Your Materials:

The first thing to do is to gather your materials. I took a little walk on a beautiful fall day to the park near our home. I picked up a few pine cones and enjoyed the wonderful weather. In my backyard, I cut a few small twigs from the vines that grow over my fence. Those vines work perfectly because they are different colors ranging from a light tan to a dark brown. I chose several twigs for my project and cut them down to fit the container I was using. Next, go gather those cotton balls from your bathroom and the glue gun from the place you keep your crafts.

Let’s Get Started:

1. The first thing I like to do is to “poof” out the cotton balls just a bit. Give them a little more fluff to make them look more natural.

2.  The next step is to clip off (with needle nose pliers) or pull the scales off the pine cones and hot glue them to the bottom of the cotton balls – 2 to 4 per cotton ball. Now, they look like little cotton buds from the plants.

     

3. Next, glue the finished cotton buds to the twigs. Just a word of advice: Work with the cotton buds to form them to the twigs. Just work with the cotton and the little pine cone scales to get them to look the way you want on the twigs.

Some people like to put them individually on the twigs. I prefer to put them in groups as well as singles. Have fun and enjoy the creativity!

Voila! Homemade cotton stems!! Here is my finished product. I left some of the twigs plain and mixed them in with my cotton stems and some dried flowers.

Live life simply!

~ Jill