Apple slice garland Find out how to make your own seasonally festive decorations Make beautiful hanging decorations and gift them to friends and family in celebration of Yule, Christmas or to dress-up your own home and enjoy the festive holiday with personalised handmade garlands crafted from natural & man-made resources. You'll need Apples of any colour - ready dried on amazon.co.uk   Lemon Juice   Pinch of salt    Bay leaves - fresh or dried     Fir or pine cones   Red tipped artificial berry stamens on amazon.co.uk   Garden wire - on amazon   Fabric strips and ribbon;   red gingham , 4mm satin & 6mm grosgrain Optional cinnamon sticks    Hole punch tool dehydrator dehydrator sheets artificial berries gingham ribbon pine cones Print the apple & bay leaf garland's 'How to' guide below by right clicking or selecting the image and using the menu on your device. Making your garland  1. Place the apples on their side and cut each one into 5mm slices. 2. Pour 8oz lemon juice into a bowl and sprinkle in the salt, stir until the salt dissolves.     3. Heat the oven to 200 degrees °F   4. Dry each round of apple thoroughly between absorbent cloth such as towelling and place each of the rings on a non-stick baking tray. 5. Bake for about an hour turning the slices over after 30 minutes. Gradually they'll dehydrate, taking on a springy foam texture. What your finished slices shouldn't look like :( ! If you remember to press each slice of apple firmly between fabric to dry it thoroughly before baking you should avoid the caramalisation that ours experienced oops! After the major apple fail amazon worked wonders, as such our garland also includes a pack of bought slices once the apples at home ran out! 6. When threading the leaves & dried apple rings, a hole punch came in useful for us as it cut small clean areas that helped prevent the slices & leaves from splitting as the wire passed would otherwise of been pushed through. Designing your garland lay out .. Count up the leaves, the apple rounds and pine cones and mark out a repetitive pattern . Roughly, ours went along the lines of 3 apple slices, 2 bay leaves, 2 apple slices, 3 bay leaves, 1 fir cone ... repeat To secure the fir cones in place wrap a length of 4mm ribbon around the upper scales of each cone and use it to tie to the wire. The ribbon allows the cones to slide which is great if they need re-positioning. Once this foundation is complete wrap the wired berry stamens and more ribbon and fabric strips. Depending how you wish to hang your creation, fashion loops at the end of the garden wire to hang on hooks or create a hook and loop to fasten the two ends together for a wreath.   Growing your own apple tree and bay leaf shrub is a lovely way to make sure you have the resources on hand for making a number of different cottage garden crafts. This activity page was first uploaded back in November 2013 and for the sixth year in a row our garland has once again been hung,  it still smells as gorgeous as the day the bay leaves were first picked! Please have fun with your makes xx   home - shop - about - contact - books - site map