Homemade Christmas Ornaments

I cant believe its been almost 2 weeks since I posted!! I apologize! In the past week or so I've been keeping busy, getting ready for the big Holiday and doing Cupcakes for the wag jag deal and other orders. Finished the 2 most important people on my Christmas list and now to add to gifts and figure out what the heck to get my parents and the in laws...I'm open to any suggestions!

So when I decided on the "theme" for our tree, about 4 years ago, I really wanted to do Gingerbread men and it had to be "country-ish". I looked everywhere for gingerbread men decorations ANYTHING would have done...I know it might be hard to believe now because they are everywhere, but there was nothing. So I had to make my own! I found a recipe online for Gingerbread ornaments, which was pretty much a gingerbread recipe with no egg. I looked last year through all my recipes and can't find the exact recipe I used...frustrating! But here's a link to a very similar one, with instructions!

Gingerbread Ornaments

Every year I put 3 trees, our main tree, a smaller one in the kitchen, and a tiny one in Charlee's room. Last year the tree in the kitchen got a huge makeover, from gold and red to Kitchen themed! What's on a kitchen themed tree? Started out with Cinnamon Ornaments, Gingerbread and Heart Shaped.

Cinnamon Ornament Recipe

1 c Cinnamon

4 tbsp White Glue

3/4c -1 c water

Mix the Cinnamon and the Glue together, Gradually add the water until a the "dough" forms a ball. Sprinkle the counter top with Cinnamon and roll out the dough, cut using cookie cutters. Using a straw cut a hole in the top for hanging. Lay the ornaments flat and allow to air dry for 48 hours before hanging.

I used rafia I bought at the dollar store to hang some of mine on the tree. Also on the kitchen tree:

• rafia bows on some of the branches
• used rafia to hang some extra christmas themed cookie cutters as decorations.
• tied rafia (or string) around whole cinnamon sticks and hung those from the branches.
• dried apple slices with cinnamon and used ornament hooks to hang those
• finished by wrapping some Gingerbread man ribbon around the whol tree as a "garland"

I love my kitchen tree as much as I love our main tree, and it smells SO SO good! :)

Cookie Cutters and Cinnamon Sticks

Dried Apple Slices.