These fun nature-inspired holiday cards require only a few materials. All of the materials are readily available and easy to gather. No sewing needles are required, they are called embroidery cards because they look like they have been embroidered. No needles were used in this craft - only pine needles!
A pine needle has a certain intriguing quality; their smell, texture, and flexibility. Ponderosa pine needles have 3 separate needles in each bunch, and they are long and easy to manipulate into shapes if they are fresh. We have been experimenting and finding different ways it can be used to create interesting projects and crafts, and it seemed like a great way to do a kid-friendly embroidery technique.
Fun Outdoor Activity prior to the craft:
Take a nice nature walk and collect some pine needles! You can often find fallen groups of green needles laying under a variety of pine trees. The orange dry ones would look equally as nice, although they can be brittle to work with. Have fun exploring and see what you find under a pine tree.
Did you know that a cluster of pine needles is called a fascicle? Yes! Most species have fascicles of 2, 3 to 5 needles. In fact, you’ll know it’s a pine tree because of its fascicle. If the needles are grouped together in those numbers, you have yourself a pine tree. Have fun learning a bit about pine trees while creating this craft!
There are over 100 species of pine trees, so they can be hard to ID. Lots of them look very similar.
Here are some pine trees to know and search for:
Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)
Loblolly Pine Tree (Pinus taeda)
Lodgepole Pine Tree (Pinus contorta)
Sugar Pine Tree (Pinus lambertiana)
Scots Pine Tree (Pinus sylvestris)
Western White Pine Tree (Pinus monticola)
red pine (P. resinousa)
jack pine (P. banksiana),
pitch pine (P. rigida)
Keep an eye out in particular for long needles for this craft!
Materials:
Card stock or thick paper
Pine needles
Scissors
Tape or glue
Instructions:
Step one: Fold a piece of paper in half.
Step two: Create small holes using scissors. To get started create a triangle shape, with three holes. You can add as much creativity (and holes) into your design as you want.
Step 3: Put your pine needle, or in this case, the attached needle fascicle into the top hole.
The top of the pine needle will go through to the inner part of the card.
Step 4: Put the bottom part of the needles through the bottom holes, as show in the picture.
Step 5: Add another pine needle to the bottom hole so that it’s goes across the bottom.
Step 6: Add more holes and more pine needles through those holes, depending on the design that you want! The idea is to make it look like a Christmas tree, however you can create any design that you want!
We added holes to the sides of the triangles and created a zig zag design and a horizontal checkered tree design.
Add more complex designs, depending on age and skill level.
Step 7: Secure the inside by either taping it, or adding glue to a piece of paper and gluing it directly onto the inside card to hide the pine needles and secure it into place. You may need to cut any long pieces off prior to taping them down.
The kids used decorative tape, which made an abstract art piece on the inside of the card!
Step 7: Add a star to the top of your tree, if desired. Glue on a leaf, create an embroidered star using string, draw a star, paint one or use a star stamp. Do whatever you want to add your creative touch.
We hope that you have fun creating these unique nature-inspired holiday cards! If you create this craft feel to share it to Instagram and tag us @acorns.and.aprons - we would love to see your creations and we will share it to our stories (tag the image itself so we see it on our grid).
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