How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones – 2 Ways!

Pinecones are probably my favorite fall and winter decor; they’re just so pretty! Now that the weather is starting to get cold, I see scented pinecones on the shelves every time I’m in Michaels, and they smell fantastic! But I also see tons of fallen pinecones on the ground when we’re out on a walk, so I figured that this year I would make my own cinnamon scented pinecones to use in my decor. It’s super easy to do, doesn’t cost hardly anything, and the scent is 100% natural and lasts way longer than store-bought! So today I’m going to share how to make cinnamon scented pinecones, two different ways!

How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones

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The easiest way to do this is to use essential oils, but if you don’t have essential oils, you can also use ground cinnamon to add that fun fall scent to your pinecones!

How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones

  • 5 minutes (time spent doing stuff)
  • 4 hours (time spent waiting around)
  • 4 hours and five minutes (total project time)

Tools

  • an oven
  • cookie sheet
  • ziploc bag
  • spray bottle (I love my glass spray bottle from Grove!)
  • glue and a paintbrush, if you’re doing the ground cinnamon method

Materials

Start by getting some pinecones! You can either buy plain, unscented ones from a craft store or online, or you can pick some up in your neighborhood. If you gather fallen pinecones from the ground, you can use ones that are already opened up, or you can use the smoother ones that are still closed because the heat of the oven will open them up.

Regardless of which method you use to scent your pinecones, you need to prep them first. If you buy plain pinecones, they are probably already cleaned and dried, but if you pick up pinecones on a walk, you’ll want to make sure they are free of sap and that there are no bugs living inside of them before you use them in your decor!

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with foil. Place the pinecones on the cookie sheet on their side. Bake the pinecones in the oven for about 45 minutes.

How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones

This will heat up the sap and allow it to drip off the pinecones onto the foil below, and will kill any critters living inside the pinecones. If your pinecones were still smooth and closed, the heat of the oven should force them to open up.

Pull the pinecones out and let them cool on the foil-lined cookie sheet until they are room temperature before adding any scent to them.

Method 1: Essential oil

Using cinnamon essential oil will give you the strongest, longest-lasting scent. Make sure that you are using essential oil and not anything called “scent” or “fragrance oil”. Essential oils are 100% natural, but fragrance oil is a chemical scent produced in a factory rather than distilled directly from plants.

Put 15-20 drops of cinnamon essential oil in a spray bottle and add ¼ C of water. Shake well.

NOTE: Pure essential oils are very strong and will eat away at plastic if left in a plastic container for any length of time. I used my awesome glass spray bottle from Grove for this project so that my plastic ones weren’t ruined. If you do use a plastic spray bottle, dump out any leftover essential oil and water mixture immediately after you are done. If you use the glass spray bottle you can leave the mixture for however long you’d like, and use it to re-spray the pinecones later if they start to lose their scent!

Then put your pinecones in a big ziploc bag and spray them with the essential oil mixture.

How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones

You don’t need to completely soak the pinecones, but spray them three or four times to make sure the scent is strong. Shake the pinecones up pretty well to mix the scent around, then spray them again a few times. Close up the bag and leave it out on the counter until all of the moisture is soaked up by the pinecones.

How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones

If there’s a ton of moisture in the bag, the pinecones may close back up slightly as they soak it up. That’s fine! Just wait until all of the moisture in the bag is gone, then open it up and leave it open until the pinecones dry back out and open up again. They should open back up again in 24 hours or less; if you want to speed it up a bit, hit them with a hair dryer on high, or stick them back in a 200 degree F oven for ten minutes.

Then you’re ready to use the cinnamon-scented pinecones in your decor!

How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones

If the scent starts to wear out, you can just spray them again!

How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones

Method 2: Ground cinnamon

If you don’t have essential oil, you can use ground cinnamon to add that fall scent to your pinecones. It’s a little bit messier, but it will still smell great!

Pour a little bit of all purpose glue into a small container and thin it just a little bit with water. You don’t want it completely liquid, but you need to be able to brush it on with a paint brush.

Add a bunch of ground cinnamon to a ziploc bag.

Take your pinecones and gently brush them with a very light coat of the watered-down glue so that all of the nooks and crannies are covered. Set the pinecone aside for a few minutes so that the glue can dry a little bit. You want the glue to be tacky, not totally dripping wet.

Then add the pinecones to the bag of cinnamon, close it up, and shake well to make sure cinnamon gets everywhere! Gently tap the pinecones over the bag to help shake off any loose cinnamon, then set them aside to dry for a few more minutes.

Once the glue has fully dried, you can use the pinecones in your decor!

I recommend putting them on a plate or tray, just in case any more loose bits of cinnamon fall off over time.

How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones

The awesome thing about making your own cinnamon scented pinecones is that it’s really easy to customize how strong of a scent you want. Sometimes the store-bought ones are OVERPOWERING!

Also, it’s so easy and inexpensive to do that you can easily do it again year after year and have wonderful, scented pinecones as part of your fall and winter decor every year!

How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones

How To Make Cinnamon Scented Pinecones

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Jessi Wohlwend

I believe that anyone can do crafts and DIY projects, regardless of skill or experience. I love sharing simple craft ideas, step by step DIY project tutorials, cleaning hacks, and other tips and tricks all with one goal in mind: giving you the tools you need to “do it yourself”, complete fun projects, and make awesome things!

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Reader Interactions

  1. Nancy A Hughes says

    3 years ago

    I’d like to make burn cinnamon-scented pinecones to burn in my fireplace. And I have a big supply of cinnamon sticks. Can I grind up the sticks in a coffee-bean grinder and use them instead of what’s in my spice jars? Also, is the glue a problem in the fireplace? I’ve seen mesh bags of pinecones in stores and thought they were for fireplaces. Thank you so much.

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      3 years ago

      Yep, you can definitely just grind up the sticks! It’s actually really smart to use them for this because it doesn’t really matter how finely ground they are, like it might for cooking purposes. As for burning the glue, if you use something like a non-toxic Elmer’s glue it shouldn’t be a problem. According to the MSDS (safety data) for Elmer’s glue, the fumes from burning it are probably no more hazardous than the wood you’re burning along with it.

  2. Amy Deason says

    3 years ago

    I tried this but my pine cones DID NOT smell like cinnamon. They smelled so bad that I had to throw them away!!

  3. Kay Boling says

    3 years ago

    Thank you for the directions to scent my pinecones. All I have on hand is the fragrance oil, will it still work but just not as good?

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      3 years ago

      Yep, it will definitely still work! The difference is just that the fragrance oil scents are usually manufactured in a lab and not as strong or long-lasting.

      • Kay Boling says

        3 years ago

        Thank you 😃

  4. Janie says

    4 years ago

    Was looking for a way to receive my cinnamon pine cones and came across your site. This sounds really easy. Pine cones get expensive to buy every year for the smell. Can’t wait to try. Thank you for sharing. (I need things that are easy & fun) ☺☺

  5. Sherrill says

    4 years ago

    Could you just spray the cones with spray adhesives then shake cinnamon on them?

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      4 years ago

      You could but it wouldn’t really impart the scent as much; it would literally just cover them in cinnamon. It would definitely smell like cinnamon for a while, but for the scent to really sink in without worrying about loose cinnamon brushing off later, the oven works better.

  6. Linda says

    4 years ago

    What cinnamon essential oil do you use?

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      4 years ago

      I’ve used Cinnamon Bark and Christmas Spirit from Young Living, but you can use any one you want as long as you like the scent!

  7. phyll says

    5 years ago

    Love fall and all the scents! I am assuming you can use any fragrant essential oil….maybe lavender in the bathroom.

  8. Gayle G. McGregor says

    5 years ago

    I’m looking forward to having a lovely cinnamon scent in our home this autumn.

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