DIY Christmas: Gingerbread Men Christmas Ornaments

The Holidays are upon us, so for a lot of people that means rushing around crowded stores and stressing to get everything you need to make your home 'just right'. But if you are like me you probably still have a warm spot for the old fashion Christmas' things like homemade decorations and trees. This is a simple decoration idea that could be alter in SO many ways to make it match your theme, but for me I just stuck to a simple gingerbread man. (Other ideas could be a reindeer, a star, or even a cupcake for those cute pink trees!) You only need a few materials and for me this was free to make! That means YAY for your Holiday wallet!

STEP 1.

First you will need to get your materials for the shape. For my gingerbread men I used an old shopping paper bag.

STEP2.

Next I printed out a stencil I found online of the shape. You could easily just draw one if you are brave but tracing was much quicker for me. TIP: If you are wanting to make a few of these, fold your paper a few times so you can cut more than one at all at the same time! You should have something like this..

STEP 3.

The next thing I did was made some really easy bow ties out of a stand of ribbon and hot glue. Once I had enough for my little army of men, I glued them on under his neck. If you aren't good with hot glue or don't have any ribbon you can alter this part. You could paint on a bow with glitter, or even use bow tie macaroni!

STEP4.

The next thing I did was make a way for these to go on the tree. I used some old rope type stuff that I had and simply hot glued it to the back of the men in a loop shape. If you don't like hot glue you could probably just tape them to the man since it will only be seen from the back and only has to be strong enough to hold the paper man.

STEP5.

The last step is to paint or draw the face and outfit on your ornament. I used acrylic paint for everything except the buttons which I used red glitter glue. Here is what my little army looked liked. Also, you don't have to have every ornament the same. If you are doing this craft with your kids, encourage them to all paint their own style face and outfits so that they stand out differently on your tree.

And that's all there is to it! Simple, cheap ( or possibly free if you have everything like I did), and from the heart! Hope you enjoyed it!!