Natural materials are getting more popular by the day. Eucalyptus, pampas grass and - as of late - cotton stems are on every Instagram feed and we’re so ready to let them into our home! In this little tutorial, we’re showing you, how you can make your very own cotton stems in just a few steps.
Trendy things often seem to be hard to get. Either, they’re already gone or a little too special for some shops. Cotton stems can already be found in some decor pieces but are either quite pricey or don’t look very natural. So we thought: We can do better than that! And that’s how we did it:
Cotton Stem DIY | You’ll need
Most of the things you need for this diy, you’ll either have at home or can grab it easily from the next forest for free. You’ll need a few thin twigs to attach your cotton blossoms later on. Think of how long you want your cotton stems to be, when choosing your twigs. Pick a twig with branching if you want to attach more than one cotton blossom per twig! Collect a couple of larger pine cones from the forest. You’ll also need a pair of pliers or scissors to cut the scales from the pine cone and a hot glue gun.
Cotton Stem DIY | Method
First of all, form four smaller balls from one cotton ball. They don’t have to be exactly the same size don’t have to be perfectly round. We are trying to imitate a natural product so perfection isn’t necessarily what we’re looking for! With your pliers, loosen four pine cone scales. We’ll need them in the next few steps.
Put the four small cotton balls together as shown in the photo above and glue them together with the hot glue gun. You’ll have to use quite a bit of glue as it doesn’t stick very good on the cotton. Glue cotton ball after cotton ball onto each other and use an extra bit of glue in the middle to hold them together.
Now it’s time for the pine cone scales! For every space between two balls, we’ll need one scale. Glue them upright onto the cotton blossom. Again, you don’t have to be super neat here. Nature isn’t always striving for perfect symmetry either!
Now that your cotton blossom is done, we’re ready to glue it onto the twig! Pick yours and poke a little hole at the bottom of the blossom. Now cover the tip of the twig in glue and stick it into the cotton. If the pine cone scales should look a little lost on the side of your blossom, squeeze and glue them closer to the stem to avoid a blank space.
And there you have it: Your very own self made cotton stem! If you want to add an even more realistic look, dust finely grounded cumin, cinnamon or any brown powder onto your blossom. Whatever you have at hand works!
Decorate with your diy cotton stem
Now all you have to do, is to put your blossoms in the spotlight! You can decorate with your cotton stems in every season by changing little things like the vase they’re standing in. We went for an autumnal look, what do you think?
