Christmas Crafting with Dried Oranges

I've been experimenting with making Christmas decorations using dried oranges. Although what I've come up with is super simple and more like assembling rather than making... I thought I'd share it anyway and that it might be a nice thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.

To make your dried orange slices, simply slice a large orange into round pieces (try to get them quite thin and use the whole orange so you have different sized slices) and place them directly onto the oven rack. Then bake them in the oven on a very low heat for about 5 hours. Keep checking on them to make sure they don't burn. They need a good long while in the oven however, or else they will be sticky! (Mine were a bit sticky and got some glitter adhered to them... oops!)

I decided to make little Christmassy bundles with cinnamons sticks, twine and my dried orange slices. They smell lovely and could be placed around the dining table on Christmas day or put into bowls like homemade potpourri.

You can also stud your dried orange slices with cloves. I did this with one in my second bundle and then attached a ribbon to the whole thing by carefully making a slit in the back orange slice with a pair of scissors. I thought this would make a lovely festive air freshener for your car (or anywhere really!).

I think a garland would be quite simple to make with the orange slices...You could make a little hole in each one and thread them through some twine. Cinnamon sticks could be also be attached and you could even cut a festive message out of card (such as "Joy" or "Noel"), decorate it, and then attach it to your garland inbetween your oranges and cinnamon sticks.

It's definitely worth making some dried orange slices as it's so easy and the crafting possibilities with them are endless! 

Jane 

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