Apple Cinnamon Ornaments

Oh my goodness!!!  I can not even begin to tell you how amazing my home has smells as I write this post.  There is Christmas floating through the air...the scent of apples, cinnamon, and wild orange are intoxicating.

We decided to make these ornaments for my girls' teachers this year.  It just might become an obsession to my daughter Rose.  She enjoyed mixing and rolling out the dough so much. I think that she would have played with it all night if I had let her. Thankfully it was way past bedtime and as soon as they went into the oven my girls were ushered off to bed.

They really are extremely easy to make and appropriate for any child 3 years old or older to help with. 

Take equal parts of apple sauce & ground cinnamon and mix together.  Add more cinnamon if needed to get the consistency you desire. You want the dough to be moldable but not too wet.

Then take some wax paper and with a rolling pin roll out the dough to a 1/4"-1/2" thickness. The thicker the ornament, the longer the drying time. Select your favorite cookie cutters and have at it! Rework any excess dough to make more ornament shapes.

Use a straw to make a hole for a ribbon or string to go through later. 

I decided to score our ornaments to give them a little character. The backside of a regular table knife works just fine.  

Be sure not to score too deep or your ornament will be weakened.

A shortbread cookie press also works well to make designs on the ournaments.

You can either let the ornaments sit out to dry for 2-3 days or bake them for 2 - 3 hours in the oven at 200°F.

Once dried, you can decorate the ornaments with glitter, paint, or other crafty embellishments.  Have fun!

Then the finishing touch, tie off a pretty bow for hanging on the tree.

Merry Christmas!