Come On Baby, Light My Fire
What do you do on a freezing cold night when you need to get your fire going to help keep your feeble children warm? You drive to the local store, of course, and pick up one of those pricey fire starter logs, right?!
Wrong. The correct answer is to grab one of your inexpensive DIY pinecone fire starters that you have stocked up in storage. Wait, you don’t have those either? Well, now is the time to learn how to make them and save yourself a couple of dollars in the process. Plus, these fire starters are so much prettier.
You need:
– Pinecones (I have a ton that our Dad collected and sent home with me the other day. Thanks, Dad!)
– Tea light candles (From the dollar store)
– Cupcake wrappers (Mine are from the Target dollar spot)
To start, bake the pinecones in the oven @ 200 for about 40 minutes to kill off all of the creepy crawlies that are living in them. If you bought pinecones from the store, you can probably skip this step.
Keep the oven on. Take the tea lights out of the their little metal cups (if they have them) and put them in the middle of the cupcake wrappers, in a muffin tin. Place in the oven for a several minutes to melt the candles.
Once they are melted, take them out of the oven and move the wicks over to one side with tweezers, or pliers, or your fingers. Whatever works. This will make them easier to light.
Lastly, before the wax dries, plop a pinecone down on top of each melted candle. Let them harden for a bit and your fire starters are ready to use!
These would be a great and inexpensive gift to give this holiday season. Keep the wrapper on for a festive feel (and some extra fuel) or remove them for a simpler look. You could also add some essential oils to the melted tea lights to make them smell yummy. I think we are going to save some of ours for backpacking/camping season.
The best part is that I think I’ve converted Emily to using these, instead of her typical method of just lighting a piece of paper on fire and chucking it at a pile of wood, in the hopes that something magical will happen.
9 Comments
Lori @ A Bright and Beautiful Life
What a great idea. They’re cute, too. Thanks for sharing at Making Monday. Happy Thanksgiving.
Erin
Thanks for stopping by, Lori! Have a great holiday!
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Kathryn mcroberts
I love this idea. I dont have a fire or woodburner but I have friends that do! I found some really big cones (size of my hand) do you have any suggestions on what to make from these please? They are too magnifcent to burn I think.
Many thanks
Kathryn
Marija Lenc
I would coloured them.
They look so good & prety.
Mine are in big jar for several years.
Just tonight I did some cones with glitter..
Some are going to be in Advent wreath this year.
Sherry
My little grands wanted to help, but I was concerned with the hot wax. So, after they cooled I had the grands push parts of cotton balls in between the pine cone “leaves”(not sure what they are called.) Anyway, it made them feel useful!
Anna Prosperi
Doesn’t wax get all over the fireplace?
GiniD
To answer Anna Prosperi – YES! Wax DOES get all over the fireplace, woodstove — whatever, and that is the reason my husband won’t let us use those type of firestarters. These are GREAT for camping, but really not a good use for fireplaces or woodstoves as the wax will build up, unfortunately.
Jack
How about we let the pinecones rest for a day or two so the insects can have a chance to go their way without the wipeout. Yeah-yeah-yeah.