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Dried Orange Ornaments

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These dried orange ornaments are easy to make and use supplies that are cheap or free. They make great gifts and smell amazing!

4 dried orange slice ornaments with wooden beads on the tops and some have cinnamon sticks too.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I love an easy free or extremely cheap DIY. I also love when I can reuse something or create something with zero waste. These dried orange ornaments are all of those things.

dried orange slice

They are easy to make, free or inexpensive, can be made using just the rind of the orange, and can be composted when done with use! They’re also just incredibly simple to make and smell amazing.

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How To Make Dried Orange Ornaments

Make these simple dried orange ornaments for gifts or for your own tree.

What You Need:

Tools Needed:

  • Scissors
  • Oven
  • Baking Sheet
  • Knife or Slicer

Supplies Needed:

  • Oranges
  • Cookie Cutters
  • Twine
  • Cinnamon Sticks
  • Parchment Paper
  • Towels
  • Beads
tiny orange rind shapes on strings

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Tips for Making Dried Orange Ornaments

Ask Around for Oranges

Depending on where you live, you might have oranges available for free in your community. Here, most people have citrus trees in their yard. Or you can pick them off the trees locally.

dried orange slice with a cinnamon stick

If you live somewhere with lots of citrus trees, ask in the buy nothing group or your neighbors to see if you can get some of their oranges. You can also use lemons and grapefruit for this. They create beautifully dried ornaments in different colors. I have no tried this with limes.

Slice the Oranges Thin

The oranges will dry evenly and quickly if they are sliced the same size and thinly. Finding the right thickness is a little difficult. Not so thin that the oranges tear, but definitely not thick slices.

sliced dried oranges inside an oven

Using a mandoline slicer will keep the slices uniform. I cut them either 4.5mm or 6mm on my mandoline.

sliced dried oranges sitting on a rack

Use Towels to Dry Ornaments

Use towels to press out extra moisture before drying the ornaments in the oven. There needs to be no extra moisture and sugars so that it won’t burn in the oven.

Cut Holes After Oranges Come Out of Oven

The oranges are too juicy to cut holes in the oranges before they are put in the oven. So once they come out use scissors to poke holes in the oranges.

scissors poking a hole in a dried orange

Peel the End of the Orange

There’s always a little bit of the orange left over that doesn’t make a good slice for an ornament.

shapes cut out of a orange rind sitting on a green plate

Peel out the flesh of this end piece and use a small cookie cutter to punch shapes in the rind. Dry it out in the oven and create small gift toppers.

tiny star orange rind hanging on a tree next to a snowman ornament
Yield: 20

Dried Orange Ornaments

Dried Orange Ornaments

These dried orange ornaments are easy to make and use supplies that are cheap or free. They make great gifts and smell amazing!

Prep Time 30 minutes
Active Time 10 minutes
Oven 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 40 minutes
Difficulty Easy
Estimated Cost $10

Materials

  • Oranges
  • Twine
  • Cinnamon Sticks
  • Parchment Paper
  • Cookie Cutters
  • Towels
  • Beads

Tools

Instructions

  1. Slice oranges between 4.5mm and 6mm thick. Pat well with towels to remove excess moisture.
  2. Use small cookie cutters on the rind to cut out shapes.
  3. Lay oranges and small rind shapes on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 2-4 hours on 150-200 degrees.
  4. Check oranges every 30 minutes and flip once an hour to ensure they dry evenly. Remove from oven when color has changed and all moisture has been removed. Allow to cool.
  5. Once cool, poke holes in the oranges with scissors.
  6. Fold twine in half and put it through the hole in the orange slices, add a cinnamon stil and loop the twine over the stick and put the ends through the loop. Add beads to the top and then tie off to hang.

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dried orange ornament with wooden beads hanging on a tree

What’s Next? 

If you enjoyed this dried orange ornament, you might enjoy these other ornaments too:

How to Make a Mini Book Ornament

book ornament being held in front of a christmas tree

Book Page Ornament Snowflakes

book page ornament snowflakes on a christmas tree

Macrame Ornaments

macrame ornaments hanging on a christmas tree

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