Do-it-yourself Christmas decorations from oranges. Making a festive garland of oranges
Without what it is impossible for our person to imagine the New Year? Certainly without Olivier, "Irony of Fate" and the smell of juicy tangerines. 
And if the first two points do not seem problematic, then citruses are an insidious thing. They are allergic. And the invigorating festive aroma is often present only in our imagination. And real fruit smells no better than plastic. But the smell is half the festive atmosphere. Therefore, we offer to show a little resourcefulness and make an original and very fragrant home decoration - a real orange garland!
A garland is just as badly replaceable attribute of winter holidays as citrus fruits. So why not combine them, and at the same time the pleasant with the useful, by making an original home decoration? Which, with its aroma, will drive away the melancholy for a long time and remind you of the festive season.
To make an orange garland, you will need:
1. 2-3 medium-sized oranges;
2. Twine or fishing line;
3. Additionally and purely optional: tangerine peels, cones or bay leaves
Step 1: Prepare oranges the right way
Cut oranges into large, dense rings. Take a baking sheet, line it with parchment and place the orange slices. Leave to dry at least overnight, or better - for two to three days. After the drying time has passed, return the oranges to the kitchen, preheat the oven to 110-120 degrees and send the citruses to bake for 3 hours.
Step 2: string
Oranges are ready for further transformation when they acquire a light golden brown rind. Let them cool, and in the meantime, prepare a long skein of twine or fishing line. With a thick needle or nail, make two holes side by side in each slice and string them one after the other in a long row.
Step 3: additional decorations
Optionally, add bay leaves, pine cones, or dried mandarin peels to your fragrant garland to enhance the smell and feel of the holiday. Turn on your fantasy!
Decorating with natural materials has long been one of the fashion trends, and now such decor costs an impressive amount of money. But no one bothers to do this with your own hands, and you will definitely find everything you need at home. Crafts from dried oranges are just the case when the consumables are cheap, and the result looks expensive and original.
Dried orange decorations
There are three options for harvesting dried oranges for decorations: whole rings or slices are dried from them along with the zest and pulp, the peel as a whole, or its individual pieces. But ideas for crafts from dried oranges are just a dime a dozen, and we will consider the most interesting of them in the list below:
Dried oranges for decoration are most often used to decorate Christmas trees or windows. This is a convenient format for making, garlands, or creating entire compositions. As a rule, dried orange slices or rings are strung for decoration and cinnamon sticks, pieces of natural fabrics, cones or any other natural material are added to them. Garlands are formed in the same way, stringing segments alternately on a wax cord or twine.
A tree made of dried oranges as a decoration for the New Year's table and not only will be a pleasant surprise for guests. Usually they take the base of cardboard or foam in the form of a cone, and then decorate it as fantasy tells.
A wreath of dried oranges surprisingly harmoniously fits into almost any atmosphere, and not necessarily New Year's. These are simply dried slices, and figures cut out of the peel, sometimes they are whole balls of peel, hollow inside.
A garland of dried oranges often becomes a decoration for a fireplace, a window opening, and even a festive table. Small figures made from dried peel are very good for decorating gift boxes and bags.
A picture of dried oranges in general for creativity "an unplowed field." A panel made of orange roses looks very nice (the peel is initially twisted and dried in this form), dried orange slices for decoration are very convenient in forming a pattern or mosaic.
There is very little time left before the New Year, and therefore many people are already starting to think about how to decorate the New Year tree so that it will amaze everyone around with its beauty. Of course, now in stores you can find a large number of various Christmas toys for every taste and wallet size.
But if you want no one else to have a Christmas tree like yours, then you can use original decorations made from improvised means to decorate it. Don't know where to start? Then remember the stories of your mothers and grandmothers. Previously, the Christmas tree was decorated with fruits and sweets. So why don't you make the same "delicious" decorations yourself?
Of course, sweets on the Christmas tree will not linger for a long time, especially if there are children in the house, but fruits will be a real find for you. It is best to use oranges or tangerines for this purpose, as their aroma goes well with the smell of pine needles. Moreover, even the smallest members of the family can participate in the manufacture of citrus toys.
How can you make such fragrant decorations?
There are several options for making Christmas decorations from oranges.
You can simply cut them into circles, the thickness of which should not exceed 15 mm. After that, the oranges should be laid out on a baking sheet covered with foil and put in the oven for 4 hours. The temperature regime should be minimal - not higher than 65ºС. Every hour the circles need to be turned over. After you take the oranges out of the oven, put them on a paper towel to cool.
Then you need to make a hole in them and stretch a rope or ribbon through it. That's all - your Christmas decoration is ready. You can hang one circle on one rope or several at once. You can also create a fragrant composition from dried oranges and cinnamon sticks, or make a whole garland from citrus circles. You can see options for such decorations in the photo on the Internet.
To create Christmas decorations, you can use the peel of citrus fruits. Tangerines work well for this, but oranges can also be used. On the inside of the peel, you can draw with a pen any shape you want. After that, it must be cut with scissors or a knife. Sometimes the peel of an orange is too thick.
In this case, it is necessary to scrape off its white layer with a knife. If you want all the figures to be the same size, then you can use cookie cutters to cut them.
An important point - a hole for the rope must be made in the peel immediately, while it has not dried up yet.
After that, the resulting figures must be put on paper under a heavy press, which can be used as a large book. This will prevent the peel from curling during drying. Your jewelry will be ready in a few days.
You can also make your own Christmas orange balls. First, several incomplete cuts must be made on a whole orange, after which it must be put on a battery for the whole night. And in the morning you should get the pulp out of it, slightly expanding the cuts. From above you need to make a hole for the rope. After that, the orange must be put back on the battery. Thus, it is dried for 4 days, periodically turning.
As you can see, many beautiful and original Christmas decorations can be made from an orange. To do this, you just need to show a little imagination.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful ways to decorate your home for the winter holidays is to bring natural beauty and comfort into it. The scent of pine branches and cinnamon sticks, the citrus scent of oranges, the wreath of refreshing eucalyptus that greets you as you enter the house…
So today we're sharing an incredibly easy way to add a "natural" touch to your holiday décor by creating dried citrus garlands that exude a deliciously spicy scent. And if you hang them on the windows, then dried oranges, letting in sunlight, will fill the room with warmth and bright orange light, serve as small “stained-glass windows” - very beautiful.
How to do?
Preparation: 5 minutes
Baking: 3 hours
We will need:
Oranges (we took 2 oranges for three garlands)
sharp knife
Parchment paper or baking sheet
baking sheet
Twine
Preheat oven to 150ºC. Place parchment paper or baking sheets on a baking sheet. While the oven is heating up, take a sharp knife and cut the oranges thinly: each piece should be no thicker than 3-4 mm. Then we put the circles on a paper towel (it is also desirable to cover the top) to allow the excess juice to soak.
Bake oranges for about 3 hours - until the circles are dry. Make sure nothing burns! To do this, do not forget to turn the oranges during the baking process (that is, after about 1.5 hours).
Note: Another recipe recommends drying over low heat (140-160ºC) for 4-10 hours.
When our oranges are dry enough, we begin to create a festive garland. To do this, you need to make two holes in the upper part of each circle. In order not to inadvertently spoil the slice, you can take a sharp nail. Thread the thread through the holes, spacing the oranges evenly apart. When the entire thread is full, make knots at each end.
Ready! Now our garlands can be lovingly hung on windows or walls. If you use them as a spruce decoration, then these fragrant slices will play the same role as lanterns, absorbing the light of New Year's garlands. And no less original, they will look on the chandelier.
Another option is to add dried apple rings, slices of lemon, grapefruit, lime (in fact, whoever has enough imagination here :)), cones, etc., to a string of oranges, then you can surround a large beautiful candle on a festive table with such a garland. The view will be unique.
Orange candles and pomanders
On Yule, you always want the house to smell delicious. Probably, this comes from childhood, when cookies were baked for the holidays, and from the street, having played enough snowballs, one could run into a warm cinnamon-ginger house.
ᅠᅠThere are a lot of options on how to bring the Yule spirit home, starting from, in fact, making cookies and aromatic oils and ending with a Christmas tree. Our favorite method of people who do not have time to do anything is to find an orange, a carnation at home and play fruit inquisitor in the chaos of work and preparation for the holiday.
ᅠᅠ Whoever cleaned citrus fruits in the room knows that homemade people can run from the corridors and the kitchen to the smell. Orange, studded with cloves, as in horror films, gives the aroma no less strong, and a little more tart.
ᅠᅠ All you need is the orange itself, a clove and a toothpick or knife (the orange skin will need to be pricked or cut, because sticking a dried bud into the thick side of the fruit is a tricky business).
Prick an orange from pole to pole and insert a clove into the punctures. You can do it beautifully: cut strips in the skin parallel to the lines and thread ribbons into them. Tie a loop and hang on a Christmas tree, windows or any other place where the paws of your beloved cat cannot reach.
ᅠᅠ Well, my very favorite method is to make orange candles when there are 20 minutes free. You can dilute the action with warm socks, your favorite cat and a glass of mulled wine.
ᅠᅠ We take:
ᅠᅠ a couple of oranges,
ᅠᅠ cloves,
ᅠᅠ knife,
ᅠᅠ a round spoon (or just a teaspoon, but you have to tinker),
ᅠᅠ a plate for pulp,
ᅠᅠ paraffin (shards or a candle with a wick),
ᅠᅠ wick (if you take a candle for remelting, then use the one that is already inserted into it),
ᅠᅠ pencil.
ᅠᅠ1. We put on warm socks, turn on our favorite movie, prophylactically smooth the cat (then our hands will be in the juice) and cut off the top of the orange with a knife.
ᅠᅠ2. We clean the pulp with a spoon, you can eat in the process. :3
ᅠᅠ3. We break the candle, take out the wick, it will come in handy.
ᅠᅠ4. We cut the wick to the required amount / length, tie it to a pencil, put the pencil exactly in the middle of the opened orange, the tip of the wick should reach the bottom.
ᅠᅠ5. In a water bath, melt the paraffin carefully (very carefully) and pour it into the orange no less carefully.
ᅠᅠ6. Let's freeze.
ᅠᅠ7. We decorate the edges of the orange with cloves.
ᅠᅠ Who is lazy to bother, you can simply cut off the lid, "dig" a hole in the orange and put an ordinary tea candle there. Flaming up, it will heat the orange and cloves. The smell will be wonderful.
Witch balls:: DIY home amulets
Traditionally, a shiny gold or silver ball should be hung above the windows so that, gleaming with its mirrored sides, it drives away evil and negativity from you and your home. ᅠᅠDo not forget to just wipe it from dust, so as not to get the opposite effect.
ᅠᅠHowever, colored or transparent witch balls were also in honor, so do not limit yourself.
:: PRODUCTION::
ᅠᅠ
ᅠᅠ To make such a charm, you will need:
- clear balls (best) / colored / gold or silver balls for the Christmas tree, not soldered and with a hook for hanging
- filling depending on your purpose: herbs, essential oils and stones
- acrylic gold or silver paint (optional if your balloon is transparent but you want to paint it)
- wax candle
- fumigation: juniper, frankincense or wormwood
ᅠᅠIf you want to hide the contents of the ball from prying eyes (which is not necessary), then dissolve the acrylic paint slightly (!) With water to dilute the density of the consistency, drop a few drops inside and shake it well so that the paint is distributed throughout the ball. Let dry.
ᅠᅠ For those who are not lazy: the same, just paint over with a brush.
:: FILLING::
ᅠᅠFill your balloon depending on what you are doing it for.
- For love and well-being on this front, rose petals, a tumble of rose quartz or rose tourmaline, and a few drops of lavender or rose essential oil will do.
- To protect against negativity, use salt and tumbling of smoky quartz. Morion, wormwood, juniper or white sage are also suitable. Essential oils can be used the same as herbs: juniper, wormwood. Incense works well. Please note that essential oils must be natural.
- For prosperity and well-being, citrine and pyrite, sage and cinnamon (and / or their essential oils) are suitable. However, nutmeg would be fine too.
- For academic success or learning new things, don't forget rosemary (and/or its essential oil) and amethyst or rock crystal.
- To improve health, use jasper and mistletoe.
ᅠᅠ When filling the witch's ball, concentrate on what exactly and why you are doing it. If you see fit, read the plot. But the main thing is to create a talisman with confidence and peace inside.
ᅠᅠ Having finished filling it, put a “lid” on it, light a candle and drip wax on the junction, sealing the ball.
ᅠᅠ Light frankincense, juniper, white sage or wormwood on the incense burner and pass the finished ball through the smoke.
ᅠᅠEverything, you can hang it.
:: Arrangement on the Christmas tree or at home::
- The more desirable and priority the goal, the higher we hang the ball.
- Another distribution option: we hang balls of knowledge and love closer to the top of the Christmas tree, balls of protection and prosperity - in the middle.
- Also, love balls can be hung over the bed, prosperity - over the workplace, protection - over windows or doors, health - in the kitchen or in the room of someone who needs this health.
ᅠᅠ If you use them not for a Christmas tree, but for ritual purposes, then keep the ball on the altar until the desired is fulfilled, after which it must be buried away from crowded places and water.
If you ask what aroma the New Year is associated with, you will probably name needles and citruses. Tangerines and oranges, like the sun in miniature, enliven cold winter days with their very appearance.
Usually citruses are considered as a New Year's treat, but today we propose to use their decorative properties to the fullest.
According to needlewomen, dried orange, lemon and grapefruit slices are so beautiful that they ask to decorate a Christmas tree, walls or windows. Creative minds have come up with a lot of crafts from them - wreaths, garlands, Christmas tree pendants, even Christmas trees themselves. Good news for cat owners: these decorations will definitely not be affected by the ubiquitous fluffies, since the citrus smell is unpleasant for them.
Do you want to know what kind of New Year's decor you can make from dried citrus slices with your own hands? So this collection of ideas is for you.
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How to prepare dried citrus slices (orange, lemon, grapefruit) for Christmas decorations:
1. Cut the fruit into equal parts, removing the seeds.
2. Spread on a baking sheet, place in the oven. Bake for 3-4 hours at 65-95 degrees, turning every hour. Watch the condition of the slices: they should dry, but not curl. You can also use a special fruit dryer.
Once the slices have cooled, they can be used for decoration. Below, see 7 master classes on this topic (5 main and 2 variations with examples in the photo).
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How to make Christmas tree pendants from orange slices
Tired of traditional balloons? It's time to decorate the Christmas tree with something non-standard - for example, citrus slices.
How to do:
dry the slices, then straighten the paper clip and attach on top. Voila, you have an original Christmas decoration!
The scent of the holiday: a variation of this master class
Do you want the slices to not only look beautiful, but also smell good? Before drying, put cloves in the middle of the star - you get the perfect New Year's flavor. For an eco-style Christmas tree, you can make additional pendants: in the form of “flowers” from dried citrus peel.
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Do-it-yourself New Year's grapefruit garland
We are used to the fact that they don’t play with food, and even more so they don’t hang it on the walls. But why not break the tradition? Make a garland of citrus slices, and the house will be filled with a pleasant smell and good mood.
How to do:
dry the grapefruit, orange or lemon slices, then thread them onto the cord using a thick needle. Secure each slice with a knot for better fixation.
The garland is ready! Hang it on a wall, window or fireplace.
If the garland is ready, but the material remains, make the Christmas tree pendants according to the same principle as the garland.
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Dried citrus Christmas wreath
A wreath is a versatile decor that can be made from anything. Bright citrus slices are perfect to decorate a door, a wall, a window - in general, anything.
To make this garland, you will need dried slices (about 12-14 oranges and 6-8 lemons) and a wreath base, either woven or Styrofoam. In this selection, we included 2 master classes from different needlewomen.
How to make a wreath of oranges on a wicker base:
1. Arrange the slices on the base to represent the desired result. Then glue them on using a glue gun.
2. Add a sprig of rosemary, tie a silk ribbon for hanging - the wreath is ready!
How to make a styrofoam based orange wreath:
1. Prepare the slices. Wrap the wreath with a cloth, tie a ribbon for hanging.
2. Glue the slices, starting with large ones, or fix them with pins. The author recommends a combination of both options.
3. Add flavor: sprinkle slices with orange essential oil, glue anise stars. Hang the wreath in a conspicuous place, and admire!
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Christmas tree made from dried slices of orange or grapefruit with your own hands
What is the New Year without a Christmas tree, at least the smallest one? If the dimensions of the room do not allow a full-fledged tree, make a miniature Christmas tree ... yes, yes, from the same orange slices. You will also need a foam base, some brown fabric, and glue.
How to do:
wrap the bottom of the future Christmas tree with a cloth - this will be the trunk. Then attach the slices using glue and pins. Spray the finished Christmas tree with glitter spray to make it look even more solemn.
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New Year's candlestick with a decor of citrus slices and berries
Orange slices are beautiful in themselves, and when you look through them into the light, they are simply magical. Treat yourself to a New Year's mood by combining two attributes of the holiday - citruses and candles.
To make such a candle holder, you will need a glass jar, jute rope, an artificial red berry or a bead. Pierce each slice with a thick needle, thread a rope through it. Add a berry and tie a rope around the neck of the jar to make it look like in the photo.
Here are just a few ideas for what you can do with dried citrus slices. Get inspired, try and invent new ones!
