Homemade Orange Ornaments

    A few of you have asked about my weekend project.  I was determined to make homemade ornaments to add something different. Last year I made a gingerbread cookie ornaments, but this year I wanted to try oranges. :)  Since I do not have a dehydrator, I looked online and found one method for the oven, and another for the microwave! If you want to try it, here's how I did it...

beautiful cut oranges! love the bright color.

   Prepare your oranges.  Pick firm oranges, slice them thin, and blot as much of the juice out as you can carefully.  For some of the them I also rubbed in a little cinnamon (smelled fabulous), others I left plain, and then one batch (for the microwave) I dipped in lemon juice and blotted again.  Supposedly the added lemon juice makes the oranges...oranger? is that even a word. lol.

this is a picture of the microwave dried oranges

For the oven: 

  Preheat to 275.  Place the oranges on a wire wrack, or use a cookie sheet lined with foil.  Bake for 1 hour, then lower the oven temperature to 255 for an additional 2-3 hours. You can check as often as you want...I flipped mine every half hour, and you'll notice when they are getting dry...careful they can burn. :) Pull them out when they are mostly dry with a little moisture still inside, they will finish drying as they cool. This method, the house smelled sweet and spicy allll day.



here's what happens when you microwave too long. ;)

For the microwave:

  At first I was skeptical, but it is sooo much faster, and I actually liked the color of these oranges more than the oven. The only down side is feeling like I wasted a ton of paper towels. Super easy. Start with 5-6 paper towels on a microwave safe plate, place 4-6 slices ontop, then cover with an additional 5-6 pieces of paper towels (I totally folded in half so I didn't feel like I was wasting..just make sure they are covered). Put in the microwave for 8 minutes at HALF power.  Then pull them out. To make it easier, I had a second plate waiting for round two...same 8 min half power.  For my microwave that's all it needed, but if you don't think they are dry enough, put them in again for another 4 min at half power...but be careful, my first batch I totally burned after a third round. Let them cool off and finish drying on a cooling rack. (if you are going to have more than one batch, let the paper towels dry between rounds and use again..)

finished project..ribbon, bell, glitter, other stuff....

   Eventually I sprayed mine with an acrylic to seal them, used glitter (of course), and my sister came over and helped me assemble the rest! We thought they turned out really cute, and perfect for a christmas tree.

what it looks like on the tree