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Add the scent of cinnamon to your holiday with homemade cinnamon Christmas ornaments. These ornaments can be hung from the Christmas tree, used to decorate packages, strung together to make a beautifully scented garland, or as great holiday gifts. Since the recipe is simple these are a great Christmas craft project to do with kids!

This recipe makes 12 - 14 medium sized Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments. It takes about 15 minutes to make and knead the dough, and 2 1/2 hours to bake, for a total time of 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. ground cloves
• 1 tbsp. nutmeg
• 3/4 cup applesauce

Making the Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments:

1. Preheat oven to 150°.
2. In medium bowl, combine cinnamon, cloves & nutmeg.
3. Add applesauce, stir to combine.
4. Work the dough with your hands for 3 or 4 minutes until dough is smooth and ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
5. If the dough is a little crumbly, add a tablespoon of applesause at a time to it until it is smooth and a bit sticky.
6. Roll out dough to 1/3 inch thickness. It will be sticky, so be careful with it. You can use cinnamon like flour on your pin and rolling surface to stop it from sticking.
7. Cut dough with cookie cutters. Simple shapes like hearts, bells, trees and gingermen are easier to work with than cutters with complicated shapes.
8. Using straw make small hole in top of ornament.
9. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 150 degrees for 2 1/2 hours
10. Remove from the cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.
11. Loop a ribbon through the top.

Additional tips:

• You can dry ornaments without the oven. Set them on the wire rack at room temperature, and let them stand 2 days or until completely dry. Turn them a few times throughout the process so they dry even and flat.
• If you have a food dehydrator you could also dry them in that.
• You can use acrylic paints to decorate the ornaments once they are dry.

The idea for this project came while I was searching for a picture for another post. I had written a post about Classical Music for Halloween, and wanted to find the perfect graphic to go with it. I had it pictured in my head (which is how most of my ridiculous projects start)… a stack of old sheet music from one of my recommendations.

Well, I couldn’t find anything that came close. So I decided to make my own (and take a picture of it). The following is the process I used to make my paper look old. You can use this paper aging technique to make old sheet music of your own, or try it for parchment invitations, a pirate treasure map, scrapbooking, or stationary. Have fun with it!

What you will need:

How to Age your Paper:

1. You want to print or write anything on your paper BEFORE you age it.
2. Preheat oven to 200°.
3. Place the paper on a cookie sheet (I use an old one)
4. Pour tea/coffee over the paper until the entire sheet is covered, make sure it soaks in on both side.
5. If you want darker spots on the paper, sprinkle instant coffee on the paper and let it sit on the paper. Wipe it off after a few minutes.
6. Rub your finger around the edge of the paper to wear the edges.
7. Place the cookie sheet and paper in the oven for about 6 minutes until dry.
8. Gently loosen the the paper from the cookie sheet with a fork. Be careful, it will be hot!

Additional tips:

• If your paper smells too much like coffee and not the authentic “old paper” scent you want, stick the sheets in a box with some mothballs for a day or two.
• Experiment with different colors to achieve the look you want; coffee will turn the paper a darker brown, tea will be lighter.
• You can also wear holes in the middle of the sheet by rubbing it with your finger.
• You can let the paper air dry, but weight the edges or the paper will curl.
• I have also heard good things about Walnut Ink Antiquing Solution, just spray it on your paper to give it an old look. (It is inexpensive too)