Day ten of blogmas, how the heck did we get here so fast?!
I hope you’ve been enjoying the posts and the DIYs this week so far. Today’s DIY is on making a dried orange garland!
They are all the rage this year and I have been seeing them absolutely everywhere, so obviously I had to give it a try. I love the natural aspect it brings and because of its simplicity, it can really be placed anywhere and look amazing!
Here’s What You’ll Need:
-Oranges
-Twine, or whatever string you want to feed through the slices
-Any other little bits you want to add to the garland to spruce it up. I was going to use these felt balls I bought from Amazon but they didn’t come in time for when I was making this so opted for some snowflakes that I just so happened to have from last season!
How to Make Your Dried Orange Garland
Step 1: Determine where you’d like your garland to go because that will decipher how many oranges you’ll need. I knew my garland wasn’t going to be too long so I bought two oranges and that gave me about 17 slices. It ended up being the perfect amount to hang over our fireplace.
Step 2: Once you have your oranges and you’re ready to go, slice them into ¼ of an inch. You don’t want them too thin because they’ll shrivel into pieces you won’t be able to use. Cutting them too thick takes them forever to dry. Trust me on that one, lol.
Step 3: After you’ve sliced them, place the pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Then, take a paper towel and pat the excess juice off to reduce time in the oven. Also, tisk, tisk on me – I should have known better than to use paper towel. A hand towel would have worked just as well, if not better and been more environmentally friendly. So, use a hand towel instead, lol.
Step 4: Put the slices in the oven at 200 for 2 hours. If they start to brown, you can leave them in for another half hour. If they’re still not dry, it’s best to let dry overnight so they don’t burn.
That’s it! Once they’re completely dry, you can feed them through any string you wish and add any sort of bead or felt ball to it. I think these wooden beads would look super cute on the garland, as well.
Are you into the whole “natural” décor vibe this year?
You can find yesterday’s blogmas post here in case you missed it!
