Dried orange peel stars
These festive orange peel stars are so easy to make and inexpensive too as all you need is oranges and string! They’re really versatile too - they look great strung up on a Christmas tree, tied onto gifts, added to a wreath or even just scattered across your Christmas dining table.
What you will need:
Oranges (or any citrus fruit!)
A knife and cutting board
Star shaped cutter (or you could use scissors to cut your shapes)
String or yarn
Yarn needle or skewer (or something to make holes in the peel)
What you need to do:
First you’ll need to eat some oranges! To get some good sized pieces of peel, I find it easiest to cut the orange into segments before peeling as there’s less chance of the peel tearing into small pieces.
Then use a small star cutter to punch out star shapes in your orange peel. You’ll need to put quite a bit of pressure on the cutter to push through the peel so children might prefer to use a mallet rather than their hands (so much fun!). Alternatively, you could use scissors to cut out star shapes.
Once you have cut out all your stars, make a hole in the centre of each star using a yarn needle or skewer.
Now you can either leave the stars to dry at room temperature for about two days or dry them in an oven on the lowest heat. To encourage the stars to stay flat, place the stars between sheets of baking paper and then place something heavy on top - books if you’re leaving them to air dry or a heavy casserole dish if you’re oven-drying them.
Once your orange peel stars are dry, you can use them to decorate. To make them into gift tags, take a piece of string or yarn, double it and then, using a yarn needle, thread it through the holes in the stars. Take the two loose ends and thread them back through the loop at the other end of the thread. They’re now ready to attach to your gifts.
To make a garland, thread your twine, string or yarn through each star placing them a few inches apart. Tie a loop at each end of the thread then hang and enjoy!
Author: Denise Hope, home educating mum of two boys