Garden and Hearth>Family>Cooking with Kids

An apple a day keeps the boredom away, especially when the apple you have is turned into an old fashioned apple head doll! It’s creepy, it’s fun, and it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7!

You’ll need:

A big apple, peeled.

A small knife

A bowl of warm salt water solution

Water color paints

Clear glue

Yarn or cotton

Fabric remnants, doll clothes

Step 1. Peel a big apple.

Step 2. Use a knife to carefully carve out small areas for the eyes, nose, and mouth. Don’t carve too deep!

Step 3. Put the apple in a solution of warm salt water for about 20 minutes. This will keep the apple from spoiling.

Step 4. Now your apple is ready for shrinking. Put the apple in a warm, dry place. It will shrink a little each day, but will probably take two weeks before it is fully shrunken. You decide when enough is enough.

Step 5. Once the apple is shrunken, you can add eyes and teeth. Use large beads for eyes and small beads for teeth. A little clear glue will hold the beads in place.

Step 6. Use water-color paints to add some rosy cheeks, painted lips, eyebrows, or whatever else you want to add to your apple head.

Step 7. When the paint is dry, add hair. Colored yarn or cotton stuck on with glue will be just right. Now, if you want to, you can make a body out of fabric remnants or doll clothes. Or, leave them just as they are—real no bodies!

-Linder Williams Aber