DIY Dried Oranges, Garlands, & Ornaments

I'm super excited to be sharing this DIY post with you today. This year, in the spirit of a budget-friendly Christmas, I handmade our house and tree decor. If you check my previous post, you'll see my guide on how to make yarn tassels. (DIY Tassels) I hope you enjoy this complete guide on how I dried oranges and then how I used both the tassels and orange slices to make garlands (for around the house) and ornaments (for the tree).

What You'll Need: (I yielded 2 garlands, about 25 ornaments, & leftover orange slices)

• Tassels (refer previous post)
• Oranges (I bought a huge bag from Costco and used about 8 oranges to make about 45-50 slices)
• Baking sheet
• Scissors
• White Sugar 'n Cream yarn (or any other heavy duty cotton yarn)
• Yarn needle

How to Dry the Oranges

1. Slice each orange into thin slices

2. Spread the oranges out onto a baking sheet in one layer (I placed mine on top of a SILPAT (silicone baking mat))

3. Bake for 2 hours on 200 degrees F (flip them after one hour)

4. Take them out & let them sit out to cool

TIP: depending on how thick or juicy your slices are, this process could either be shorter or take longer. Constantly keep an eye on your oranges to ensure they don't burn

How to Make the Garlands

1. Cut a piece of Sugar 'n Cream thread to the length desired

2. Tie a loop at the far end of the thread (useful for hanging the garland on the tree or around the house)

TIP: To make the stringing process easier, I hung the far end of the thread on a chair while I stood & strung along the tassels and oranges (see picture below)

3. Start stringing the oranges & tassels with a yarn needle (alternating as desired)

I strung my garlands in this order: 1 orange, 1 tassel, 2 oranges, 1 tassel. I also alternated the color of the tassels in order of white, gold, then grey. For the orange slices, if you want to see the center, poke the thread through the slice twice. I recommend puncturing the top half of the orange slice, so that most of the weight lets the slice hang to face you (see picture of my garland example)

4. Finish the garland with another loop

How to Make the Ornaments

What's great about having all of these supplies in hand, is that, a lot of the times, there are leftovers. My original intent was to use the garlands for our Christmas tree, but they looked so good around the house, I decided to leave them up and used the rest of my tassels and oranges to make individual ornaments.

1. String a piece of thread through the top of a tassel (underneath the string that joins the tassel at the center)

2. Join the two ends of the thread & tie them into a knot

3. Trim the thread

4. Repeat with orange slices, puncturing the orange once at the top, near the peel

Enjoy your homemade garlands and ornaments. Have fun with them! These can be great gifts and they could also become a DIY family tradition. You can also use any leftover orange slices to accessorize your gift wrapping. I've seen people dry out grapefruit or blood oranges as well. Cranberries can also be a great addition to the garlands.

Source: smashedpeasandcarrots.com