Acorn decorations: How to dry acorns and decorate with them for fall

Move over red, white, and blue...my fall decor is coming out.  This year I'm taking my fall mantle to a whole new level of awesomeness...or should I saw autumn-ness?  My tree branch candle sticks have been sitting up there a little lonely so last week I took the kids out for a walk to collect acorns...and did they ever!

You would thought I gave them free reign in a candy store - they were ecstatic to collect acorns.   We have tons in our neighborhood and the biggest and oldest oak tree of all is right across the street. 

My kiddos spent no less than an hour picking up the biggest and best green acorns.  My daughter was very meticulous only picking out the perfect acorns, while my son pretty much looked for anything that wasn't "crunchy" (AKA run over by a car).  As you can see they did an awesome job.

Now that I have 15 pounds of acorns...what to do with them.  You can't just put them up on the mantle or on the dining room table.  Well, I mean, you could - but you'd probably be greeted with some kind of 8 or 10 or 3564654 legged thing sooner or later.

Here's how I dry acorns to clean and kill any little buggers.  Soak the acorns in water first to remove the dirt.  You won't believe how quickly the water turns brown - or maybe you will.

Drain the water and place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet.   Bake the acorns at 200 or 250 degrees for an hour.  Just a heads up, the green ones will turn brown...
 

Now, the acorns are ready for your fall decor.  I took about half of mine and spray painted them gold. 

Then I mixed the spray painted acorns back with the brown acorns and filled up two lanterns.  

One of the acorn-filled lanterns has a candle in the center, but I'm pretty sure I'll never light it because all the acorns will spill out if I dare open that lantern door.