Dried fruit decorations are both easy and cheap to make. Dried fruit slices can often be obtained from craft fairs, but better than that, you could make your own! Instructions for how to do this can be found here.
All you need are a few inexpensive bits and pieces and half an hour, and you will have natural decorations that look lovely and smell amazing!
The simplest thing to do is an orange slice, thread it onto a piece of ribbon and tie the ribbon into a loop.
Or you might like to try some of these ideas below!
You will need: dried fruit slices and whole citrus fruit (you could buy them or make your own, instructions here), pine cones, cinnamon sticks, raffia, ribbon, cord (not so easy to find, I got some from Wilko), tape.
1. Take a piece of cord 30 cm long and tie a knot at one end.
2. Cut a piece of ribbon 25 cm long. Tie it in a bow around the cord, just above the knot.
3. Thread on 5 dried fruit slices.
4. Fold the top of the cord over to make a loop. You might wish to use some tape to hold it.
5. Cut another piece of ribbon 25 cm long. Tie it in a bow to hold the loop (or to hide the tape if you used tape).
1. Cut a piece of raffia 50 cm long. Fold in half and tie the ends in a knot.
2. Using a darning needle thread a dried clementine onto the raffia.
3. Thread 5 fruit slices onto the raffia.
4. Tie the raffia into a knot.
5. Cut a piece of ribbon 25 cm long. Tie in a bow over the knot.
1. Cut a piece of raffia 30 cm long. Tie one end around a pine cone.
2. Thread 7 fruit slices onto the raffia.
3. Fold over the end of the raffia and tie to make a loop.
4. Cut a piece of ribbon 25 cm long. Tie in a bow over the knot.
1. Tie a piece of raffia round 3 cinnamon sticks.
2.Cut another piece of raffia 30 cm long. Thread it through the raffia holding the cinnamon sticks.
3. Thread both ends of the raffia through 5 dried fruit slices. Knot the raffia just above the fruit.
4. Cut a 2 pieces of ribbon 25 cm long. Tie one piece in a bow between the cinnamon sticks and the fruit, and the other over the knot above the fruit.
5. Tie the ends of the raffia to make a loop.
1. Cut a piece of cord 30 cm long. Tie a knot at one end.
2. Cut a piece of ribbon 25 cm long and tie in a bow just above the knot.
3. Thread a dried clementine onto the cord. I wrapped some sellotape round the last 2 cm of the cord to prevent it fraying and also to make it easier to thread on the clementine.
4. Thread on 5 dried fruit slices.
5. Thread on another clementine.
6. Fold over the remaining cord to make a loop. You might like to use some tape to hold it.
7. Cut a piece of ribbon 25 cm long and tie in a bow around the base of the loop.
Wrapping some tape around the end of the cord will stop in from fraying and make it easier to thread.
Using a darning needle makes threading raffia easier. If you do not have a darning needle, wrapping tape round the end will work well here too.
If the holes in the fruit are to small, they can be easily enlarged using a knitting needle or a small screwdriver.
Arranging the dried fruit slices with the larger slices in the middle and the smaller ones at the top and the bottom will give the decoration a better shape.
These are only suggestions as to what you can do with your dried fruit as the possibilities are endless!
Several decorations like these can be joined together to make a garland. Instructions for the dried fruit garland I made last year are here!
You might want to keep some slices back for making a Christmas door wreath!
What a great idea, Anna. I especially like the decoration with cinnamon, both for the look and what I imagine would be a lovely aroma.