Any ideas? I live feet away from a park and picked up pine cones, there are as many as I want....but I have no creative
ideas for the garden. All I can think of is spray paint them gold and glitter up with green and red and hang in a christmas
tree.

Buy a wreath deal from a craft store and make a pine cone wreath. You can also stack them and glue them together to make a tree. You can also make a stick figure then glue the figure to a bar or pole so you have a natural sculpture for the garden.

Pile them around the base of clematises for an easy and airy mulch.

Spread peanut butter and then roll them in birdseed. Hang for the (winter) birds.

Paint them different colors & put them in a bowl with the larger end up. It'll look like a bowl of zinnias.

You can also use them as a filler for large pots.

Thanks to everyone for all the clever ideas, I like every one of them!

Can you burn in stove or fireplace? Do they smell good?

Pine cones make a neat looking tree if you have mini fairy garden
also on the fairy theme the make a great roof shingles on the houses.

The coolest thing I have seen made from pine cones has to be flowers
some how they were sliced to get the two center rows and then painted
maybe a google search would bring up a picture?
((I just searched pine cone flowers))
It does but I don't know how to link
they were using the bottom and they look like mums

Wow, tons more ideas, I may have to collect some more, thank you everyone!

I received a bag of pine cone fire starters one year. They were so pretty in a basket. Essentially, they were dipped in (colored)wax, a wick inserted and it burned along with the logs in my fireplace.

I have used them in bowl at christmas with scented oil. Got to put them in plastic bag first with the oil for a week or so.