Another idea is to make apple dolls. Once dry, insert a strong wire to form a body, add clothes or other accessories.

Once dried, they last and last -- I've had the ones in the photo for years now.

Peel a large apple and coat with mixture of lemon juice and 2 teaspoons of salt to prevent browning. With a potato peeler or small knife carve out eye sockets, a nose, mouth and ears. Don't worry about carving small details as they will be lost when the apple dries. Go for the big features and nature will take care of the rest.

Use whole cloves for eyes and raw rice grains for teeth (the faces also come out looking great without these extra props, just carve and let dry if you want to keep it simple). The photo below right shows the freshly carved apples used to make the apple heads in the photo above.

Sit apples on a wire rack in a warm, dry place for about 2 weeks. You can speed the drying process a little by drying in an oven set at the lowest temperature. However, the process will still take several days.