How to Make Pine Cone Fire Starters Spark

Adding a bit of sparkle to pine cone fire starters makes an evening in front of the hearth more festive. The trick is to scrape the dull, lead-colored material off the wires of children's 4th of July sparklers and apply the chemicals to your store-bought or homemade pine cone fire starters. The materials are readily available and the project takes only an hour to add enough sparkle to several dozen fire starters.

Things You'll Need

• Several packages of wire sparklers
• Old kitchen knife
• Mortar and pestle
• Liquid craft glue with a brush built into the lid or a modeling paint brush
• Teaspoon
• Pine cones
• Old newspaper

Instructions

1. Scrape the sparkler material off the wire sparklers onto a piece of newspaper with an old kitchen knife, pushing the blade away from you with one hand as you hold the wire end in the other. The material comes off easily.

2. Fold the newspaper to form a groove and pour the sparkler powder carefully into a mortar.

3. Grind the sparkler powder with the pestle so there are no large pieces.

4. Paint a light coat of glue on several areas of the pine cone. There is no need to soak the pine cone in glue.

5. Drizzle some of the sparkler powder onto the wet glue using a teaspoon. Allow to dry

6. Toss your pine cone fire starter onto the fire to create a mild sparkling effect.

Tips & Warnings

• Close the fireplace screen or glass doors when using sparkling pine cones.

References

• Pinecone firestarters
• Making pinecone firestarters