Spooky Shrunken Apple Heads

I found a great foodie craft you can help your kiddos with! They'll enjoy watching them change over the days! I placed ours on tree twigs, in a large vase with flat river rocks, dried craft moss and tree leaves.

From Mommy I'm Hungry

Shrunken Apple Heads
as seen here

supplies and ingredients:
apples*
lemon juice
salt
paring knife
vegetable peeler*
rice grains
whole cloves
sticks
rocks
moss
vase


You can use any variety of apple. I like to use a variety because they all dry differently so you'll get some different results. Granny Smith's are probably my favorite though.

Fill a large mixing bowl with cold water and give it a couple douses of lemon juice and a spoonful of salt. Use a vegetable peeler to peel your apples. Get as much from around the stem as you can, or leave some to make a little hat.
As each apple gets peeled, plop it in the lemon juice/water/salt bowl. When you're ready to carve, use a small paring knife to cut into your apple. The vegetable peeler end works great for eye holes. Using tweezers, stick grains of rice in their mouth, or cloves for the eyeballs. Remember that the apple is going to wither and shrink, so you want to exaggerate features. You also don't need to get too detailed. General shapes are great and details get totally lost anyway.

*You can also sit them in a warm oven (170') for an hour or so a day, to help the drying process faster so they won't mold (near the end, one of mine started to). This took 1-2 weeks.

So get started now to enjoy yours for Halloween!

From Mommy I'm Hungry

Have fun,