Easy Homemade Cinnamon Ornaments

Homemade cinnamon ornaments are a cheap and easy way to make Christmas ornaments with your kids. This craft project will provide hours of entertainment for your family and you will have the most aromatic ornaments on the block.

Your house is going to smell heavenly! Did you know that cinnamon's aroma is believed to help you feel joy and it can warm your senses. Read up on aromatherapy and the benefits of cinnamon to find out more information about that.

There are several recipes you can follow when you make your cinnamon ornament dough and you will find them on this page. Here is the ingredients you need to make the first of those recipes:

• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 2 jars of ground cinnamon (I used two 2.37 ounce bottles - you can also use 1 cup and 1 tablespoons of ground cinnamon)

That's it ... I told you it was simple and cheap! You will also need these supplies to shape and assemble your ornaments:

• Cookie cutters
• Wax paper
• Drinking straw or a skewer to make a hole in the ornaments
• Ribbon to hang your ornaments

You can bake these ornaments to dry them or you can let them sit out on a counter for 2 nights. You will have to turn the ornaments occasionally if you use the sit out dry method. How you dry them is completely up to you.

If you are going to bake them (I love the aroma from baking them!) preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

Mix the cinnamon and applesauce together and make a dough. I like to knead this mix with my hands so I can be sure the ingredients are completely mixed together. This mixture will form a dough.

Take 1/4 to 1/3 of the dough and put it in between two pieces of the wax paper. Roll the dough until it is about 1/4" thick. (If you don't have wax paper just sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on your counter and roll the dough out there.)

Peel the top layer of wax paper off your rolled dough and begin to use the cookie cutters to cut the dough into shapes.

Take your straw or skewer and punch a hole at the top of each ornament. This hole is where you will thread your ribbon or string so you can hang them. (Do not put the ribbon or string in the ornaments yet.)

Put your ornaments on a baking sheet. Put them in the oven and let them bake for 2 1/2 hours.

When the baking is complete put your cookie sheets onto wire racks so the ornaments can cool.

When the ornaments are cool you can decorate them and thread your ribbon or string through the holes.

These steps will work with the other recipes you find on this page. There may be a small temperature change or a time change, but I will let you know if that is the case.

The second recipe for homemade cinnamon ornaments has 4 ingredients and you probably have them all in your kitchen right now. The ingredients you will need are:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1/2 cup of cinnamon
• 3/4 cup of water that's very warm

Mix the ingredients together, just like the directions say up above. Then roll them, cut them with the cookie cutters, put them in the oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Let them cool.

If you are not sure what to do at this point, just re-read the directions further up the page. It's very easy to make these ornaments.

The third recipe I have calls for some extra ingredients that the other two recipes don't have. It's just some glue and a couple more spices, so you may already have these ingredients in your kitchen.

Here are the ingredients you need:

• 1 cup of cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon cloves
• 1 tablespoon nutmeg
• 3/4 cup of applesauce
• 2 tablespoons of white glue (I use Elmers)
• 1 drinking straw or skewer
• Ribbon or string

Mix the ingredients and follow the directions listed up above. Remember, you can let the ornaments dry at room temperature for a day or two on wire racks or you can bake them in the oven at 200 degrees for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

I usually paint my ornaments using acrylic paint or leave them undecorated and spray them with a Mod Podge type spray to protect them. They look great undecorated. If you are feeling artistic or your kids like to be creative, paint them, draw on them with markers, make them beautiful.

I like to make circular ornaments and draw on them with fine tip black and colored markers. You can draw a sun, a tree, a star, you can write names on them - it's fun.