Free Christmas Crafts
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Make a CommentMore Clay Crafts:
Microwave Salt Dough Ornaments
Salt Dough Pumpkins
Salt Dough Recipes, Tips, Techniques
Salt Dough Woven Heart
Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments
The rich color and wonderful scent of these cinnamon applesauce ornaments make them a lovely addition to your Christmas decor. Try hanging a few from a window sill, making the ribbons of different lengths so that the ornaments will hang at different levels, or simply add them to your Christmas tree.
Copyright © 1999-2008 Susan Spatone All rights reserved.
Published with permission from CraftAtHome.com
Cinnamon
Apple Sauce
Craft Glue
Cookie Cutters (cut by hand if you like)
Ribbon
Toothpick
Craft Project Instructions:
Mix equal amounts of apple sauce and cinnamon and add 1 teaspoon of craft glue for every cup of applesauce.
Editor's Note:
From reader comments, it seems using equal amounts of apple sauce and cinnamon sometimes results in wet dough. This depends on how watery your apple sauce is, so begin with one cup of apple sauce and one teaspoon of white glue, plus one cup of cinnamon - but also realize that you may need to add more cinnamon, in one-third cup increments, until the dough is of workable consistency.
Mix all the ingredients until you have a firm but wet dough. If you like you can substitute small amounts of cinnamon for a little nutmeg or ground cloves.
Roll out your dough to at least 1/4 inch thickness (less than this will make your ornaments a little weak and they break easily) and cut shapes with cookie cutters.
With a toothpick, poke a hole at the top of each ornament that is large enough for a ribbon to be pulled through. Place ornaments on a cooling rack or tray to dry completely. Depending on how large your ornaments are, drying could take a couple of days; it's best not to touch your ornaments during this time.
Once your ornaments are dry and if there are a few rough edges, you can easily remove the roughness with a little fine sandpaper. Sand your ornaments gently, as it doesn't take much to remove the little edges.
Tie a ribbon through the hole and, if you like, you can paint these ornaments or add a little glitter. Be sure not to cover the entire ornament with paint or the wonderful scent will be lost.
When me and my brother and sister made these with my mom, we used puffy paint to make them look like they had icing. I'm glad I found this, because over the years we've lost and broken a lot of our ornaments. Thanks for posting this!
Every year I make them with my 2nd graders but this is the first time I made them at home. They dry well in a window sill (on wax paper, just be sure to flip them one or two times). Mine did not dry well at home. I baked them for 5-7 min. @ 200 deg. F after they sat put for 24 hours.
We have made these ornaments for years. The kids love to make and give them, and friends and family love to receive them. They smell wonderful! May I suggest going to the dollar store to buy the ingredients... I've found a 6.5 oz container of cinnamon as well as the applesauce there, plus the ribbon. Saves $$$! Also, we use a straw to poke a hole for the ribbon, and write the kids initials and date on the back with a Sharpie. Merry Christmas Everyone!
Wow! What fun! I just made these with my daughter. I followed the recipe but had to add one more 1/3 of cinnamon. I was going make the flour and salt dough ornaments that you bake until I saw this recipe. I can't wait for them to dry to see how they turn out. My 2-and-a-half year old daughter is making them for our extended family. She will decorate them with some glitter fabric paint.
These are wonderful ornaments! My daughter made some last year, and lo and behold, the ornaments still held their intense scent.
I made a prototype batch, but the recipe I followed neglected to include the glue factor; the glue is key to making durable ornaments.
Homemade ornaments, or any gift for that matter, always carry more meaning than store-bought ones. (There's always a story and a moment of time captured in the very materials that went into making the keepsake, something that can't be found in the others.)
Has anyone ever used a food dehydrator to dry these ornaments? If so, how long did you let them dry and how did they turn out?
I made these about 10 years ago, with my sister mom who has now passed, my sister and I have kids of our own and I though it would be something fun to do together. Can't wait to see how they turn out.
I am a single mother of one and have friends that are single mothers, and after going through a divorce with my 2 year old, I no longer have ANY of my christmas ornaments that meant alot to me of my daughter and little ideas like this gives me hope that these ideas will mean more than the store bought items that reminded me of her.
Hi I can't wait to do this with my grandchildren. I'm always looking for crafts to do with the 5 year old. Its kinda hard to find things that they can really do almost completely on their own with me looking on. I've got tons of xmas cookie cutters so this should be fun. I'll be sure to get back here to let you all know how they turned out.
i made this with my kids, and they loved it... I used 1 cup cinnamon and 2/3 cup of apple sauce and 1 tsp glue and I rolled out different sizes each time and was able to get 27 good size shapes....
