Saturday, October 31, 2015

(Quicke{er} Shrunken Apple Heads!) Happy Halloween...


...to you and yours from me and mine!  I hope you all have a fun, safe day celebrating this beautiful time of year.  I just wanted to share with you a quick (to prep, at least) craft you can show your little ones and create with the older ones if you have a little down time today. 

Apple Shrunken Heads!  Yeah, this is about as scary as it gets around here.  In fact, mine just turned out looking like a cheerful elderly lady! 

Basically, you peel the area you want for your face, then peel a small hole on the back side for excess fluid to escape.  With a small knife, etch out a simple face (hollow eyes, leave  the nose the brows and nose highest, make the mouth wide or just a line)  Don't forget to scratch in a few of the deep wrinkles!  I only did a few on the forehead and at the corners of the eyes. 

Then pop them in the oven at a low temp until they have reached sufficient shrunkeness!  I did 275 for about 3 hours.


After they have cooled enough, you can take two apple seeds from another apple and push them in by their points for the eyes.  Then just set about as décor!
I made this off of old childhood memories, but there are several direction online.  Most involve setting the apples on a shelf to dry for several weeks like this beautiful one from Yet Another Mommy Blog.  But I also loved the idea of letting them float in a punch bowl of cider like this variation from GirlChef.  I can't wait to see what you come up with!
Happy creating!


1 comment:

  1. These are amazing - I love how wrinkled and beautifully detailed they are! Thanks for sharing a link to my post, as well. I'd be afraid to float yours because I wouldn't want them to soak up the liquid and lose their perfection.

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