How to Make Cotton Stems

Last weekend I went to the Junk in the Trunk flea market in Pomona, CA. I had so much fun and found some pretty cool treasures. I noticed as I walked around that several of the booths had these cotton stems to decorate their booths. I actually found some real cotton stems too. They were really messy, so the faux ones were more appealing to me. I looked at them and decided figure out how to make cotton stems of my own.

Here is a photo of one of the booths. Aren’t they cool?

Time: 20-30 Minutes

Materials:

Watch the Video Tutorial:

Instructions:

My daughter and I walked to the reservoir near our house and found some branches and a pine cone. Any branch will do. Real cotton stems are straight, but I like a little shape. Break the scales of a pine cone by pushing up. Then use pliers to remove the scale as close to the seed as possible. The scales (or wings) will be used as the capsule of the cotton.

Next, fluff each cotton ball and glue them onto the branch. Glue 2-4 scales on each cotton ball. You may need to add extra hot glue to tidy it up as you go. Take your time and try not to get glue on your fingers or the cotton will stick and get messy (don’t ask me how I know that).

I placed them in a brown beer bottle I had on my mantle in my living room. Love how it turned out. The best part is that I only spent $1.98 on the cotton balls!