Yucca pods are natural 'bells' I love using them in anything but they are so pretty as Christmas Bells.

Cotton Boll pods are perfect, strong, beautiful, I just glue them on cottonball or styofoam ball or whatever I have, you can use a little gluey water and newspaper to make balls for the center of any ornaments. 

Lots of wild grasses, milo, pods and a few leftover pieces of eucalyptus, glued to a small rectangle of cardboard. Everything was found wild except the eucalyptus. I do grow it but this is preserved type. I love it dried too!
The main center is a magnolia pod. 

Since Magnolia Pods are black when they dry, I sometimes play with the color of them, the center one is lightly sprayed with copper paint. I love copper more than gold, I prefer pewter to silver paint also. The two outer pods are bleached. I just put a half bleach and half clorox mix in a bowl, pods in and then weight them down for a few hours. You can do this for a lot of pods and cones.

Heavily Scented Old Fashioned Pomanders I make these every year, sometimes I make them with spaces for ribbons etc, but if I want to hang them I usually use a long knitting needle to make a hole through it and then thread it through, knot it and then make a loop for hanging. I prefer to place them in bowls with beds of cinnamon. These are dusted with cinnamon. I put about an ounce of cloves and put them fairly close together (about a cloves width apart). I roll them in cinnamon and put them in drying baskets to cure, they take about three months to fully dry. 
The one on the left is about 10 yrs old and hard as a rock and the one on the right is soft and about two weeks old. They keep forever and ever. Sometimes when they are old a clove will drop out but you can replace it with a new one.
You can use Apples and lemons to make pomanders also. The apples will wrinkle up but will dry very well and smell wonderful. Keep them in an airy place when drying.

Pods of the Honey Locust Tree

I love to find the various shapes of the wiggly pods.
The one on the right is not painted, it is a natural leather brown and can be sprayed with a shiny finish or waxed to bring the leather color out. I have not done this one yet.
The three on the left are spray painted copper, again- it is my favorite ! The pods can be used as icicles all on the outside tips of a Christmas tree. They look very wonderful on a nature themed tree or a western tree.
I usually hang them in twos. These are about a foot long. Shorter ones can be found, there are other types of trees with long pods, I love the pods from a trumpet vine (be sure to glue the halves closed, they will pop open sometimes and spill their seeds suddenly) and from the catalpa tree but the locust pods are twisted well.