Need a fun and easy DIY project for the kids? This DIY nature-inspired cinnamon ornaments craft is a great option for the whole family to get involved in! The ingredients are simple and the end result is beautiful and smells incredible. Make memories with your children this year by making your own homemade cinnamon ornaments to hang on your Christmas tree or to gift to others.
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Why make cinnamon ornaments with glue?
Cinnamon scent, along with pine scent, just seem to pair well with chilly weather and twinkling lights. Basically, it just smells like Christmas in the right setting.
The second time I ever made these ornaments was about 30 years after the first time I made them with a friend’s mom. I thought it was the neatest thing ever. Memory serves me making a candy cane shaped ornament and kept it for years before it broke.
I honestly do not remember what ingredients we used to make those ornaments but I do know it was heavy on the cinnamon!
Decorating cinnamon ornaments
For decorating your DIY cinnamon ornaments, I highly recommend a nature walk with the kids to find evergreens and winter tree leaves such as holly leaves with a few berries, cypress leaves, and even rosemary twigs.
Use these natural items to make impressions on your cinnamon ornaments before baking them.
In addition, you can also paint your baked cinnamon ornaments with a tempera paint or acrylic paint. Watercolor paint isn’t likely to show through the dark brown color of the cinnamon. I’ve seen beautiful designs made with acrylic “puffy paint” that is used on fabrics. The white really stands out on these dark brown cinnamon ornaments.
Finding pretty colored bakers twine or jute cord to create the ornament’s hanging piece to add a little extra flair to these ornaments. Jute cord adds a natural element when opting for the evergreen impressions for design. If painting with colors like red, green, and white; red and white bakers twine adds a little holly jolly to the craft.
What will I need for cinnamon ornaments?
Cinnamon, Elmer’s glue, cookie cutters (or drinking glass, mason jar), rolling pin, evergreen materials, straw, string or twine, toothpick, paint, baking sheet or dehydrator trays, dehydrator or oven, spatula.
Scroll down for my SHOP THIS POST links to items I’ve mentioned.
DIY Cinnamon Ornament Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup ground cinnamon
3/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons of white glue like Elmer’s
Rolling Pin
Cookie cutters or drinking glass
Leaves, berries, etc for impressions
Paint (optional)
Straw
Oven (or dehydrator)
Instructions:
Mix together cinnamon and applesauce in a bowl. Then add in the glue to your mixture. Knead your “dough” well. The more you knead it, the better the texture will get.
Now, dust your clean countertop with cinnamon. Roll dough into a ball then use the rolling pin to roll the dough out into a large circle 1/2 inch thick. If the edges of your circle split, roll it back into a ball and re-roll until the edges are smooth. Use cinnamon as a duster like you would flour if you were rolling out bread dough to keep it from sticking to the counter and rolling pin.
If you’re using evergreens, press those into the dough then use the rolling pin to gently roll over to create impressions. You may use the toothpick to make designs just try not to puncture through the ornament.
Next, use cookie cutters or your drinking glass to cut out your cinnamon ornament shapes around the imprinted designs.
Take the straw and make a hole wherever you’d like to tie string through later to make your cinnamon ornament able to be hung.
Set ornaments on your dehydrator trays or a baking sheet with about 1/4 of an inch spacing between each ornament. You may need to use a spatula to gently lift the ornament from the countertop to lay them on the tray or sheet.
If using a dehydrator,
set the timer for 6-10 hours on about 170-200 degrees.
If using an oven,
preheat your oven to 200 degrees and place your baking sheet inside over for about 2 hours, maybe 3 if needed.
Once your ornaments are dry and cooled down, cut twine or jute cord about 6-7 inches long then thread it through the cinnamon ornaments hole and tie with a double knot.
NOTES:
Purchase off-brand cinnamon in bulk quantity or at your local dollar store to save money.
Your dough should be slightly damp and smooth. If you find the dough to be too wet, then add more cinnamon. Is the dough too dry and crumbly? Add more applesauce.
These ornaments are NOT edible. They are for decorating purposes only.
DIY Cinnamon Ornaments
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie cutters or drinking glass
- Leaves, berries, etc for impressions
- Paint (optional)
- Straw
- Oven (or dehydrator)
Materials
- 1 cup ground cinnamon
- 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tablespoons white glue like Elmer’s
Instructions
- Mix together cinnamon and applesauce in a bowl. Then add in the glue to your mixture. Knead your “dough” well. The more you knead it, the better the texture will get.
- Now, dust your clean countertop with cinnamon. Roll dough into a ball then use the rolling pin to roll the dough out into a large circle 1/2 inch thick. If the edges of your circle split, roll it back into a ball and re-roll until the edges are smooth. Use cinnamon as a duster like you would flour if you were rolling out bread dough to keep it from sticking to the counter and rolling pin.
- If you’re using evergreens, press those into the dough then use the rolling pin to gently roll over to create impressions. You may use the toothpick to make designs just try not to puncture through the ornament.
- Next, use cookie cutters or your drinking glass to cut out your cinnamon ornament shapes around the imprinted designs.
- Take the straw and make a hole wherever you’d like to tie string through later to make your cinnamon ornament able to be hung.
- Set ornaments on your dehydrator trays or a baking sheet with about 1/4 of an inch spacing between each ornament. You may need to use a spatula to gently lift the ornament from the countertop to lay them on the tray or sheet.
- If using a dehydrator, set the timer for 6-10 hours on about 170-200 degrees.
- If using an oven, preheat your oven to 200 degrees and place your baking sheet inside over for about 2 hours, maybe 3 if needed.
- Once your ornaments are dry and cooled down, cut twine or jute cord about 6-7 inches long then thread it through the cinnamon ornaments hole and tie with a double knot.
Notes
How to use cinnamon ornaments
- Hang them on your Christmas tree
- Gift them to friends and family
- Use as a gift tag on a present
- Use as decoration in a wreath or mantle piece
Will cinnamon ornaments go bad?
Over the years and with age, these ornaments are likely to break. Store properly, wrapped in tissue and perhaps some bubble wrap in a solid plastic container, may help extend the life of these fragile ornaments.
The cinnamon ornaments have been dried of any moisture through heat and dehydration so they should not go bad or grow mold.
This is a fun craft to do with your family each year as your children get older and express more creativity. It could be neat to do this each year and keep years past ornaments to relive memories.
Pro Tip: take a picture of your creations each year in case they break and have to be thrown away. I learned this when my son’s salt dough footprint from his first Christmas broke a few years ago. I actually glued it together then took white printer paper and pencil-shaded it to keep the memory along with a photograph.
SHOP THIS POST
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Save it for Christmas!
Go ahead and pin this craft for later. We’ve made these cinnamon ornaments as a family and gifted them to my Scentsy teammates for them to add their own ribbon and twine to at a Christmas Party. The homemade aspect always warms the heart.
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