How to Make a Gingerbread Garland | DIY Holiday Decor

Ready to learn how easy it is to make a gingerbread garland? This DIY Christmas garland is perfect for a mantle, your Christmas tree, or any wall in your home.

To me, gingerbread is the official scent of Christmas. I love the gingerbread cookies, the gingerbread houses – anything gingerbread to kick off the holiday season.

Last year I made a gingerbread house garland and this year I wanted to focus on gingerbread men and women.

I will start with what simple supplies I used to make mine and then lower down I will give you other ways that you can also create this yourself.

My Supplies

You will also need card stock and ribbon.

The Making of the Gingerbread Men

The first thing I did was die cut 7 of my gingerbreads out of some light brown card stock. I love, love, love this die set! It comes with the gingerbread man shape and then accessories to make all different designs to dress them up however you would like.

I also cut out all the accessories from red, white, and black card stock.

These dies will fit in a mini die cutting machine, like the Sizzix Sidekick, but you can go a bit faster on a larger platform like the Sizzix Big Shot.

And you can use this die set for so many projects: Christmas cards, gift tags, ornaments. To me it was well worth the money to buy these dies as they would save me so much time.

There are lots of little die cut pieces, so I strongly encourage you to have a glue press. It's a total game changer. I fought getting one because I already have liquid glue wth a fine tip, so I thought I was good to go. But then I got one and I don't regret it at all!

I really thought it would take me forever to put these seven together. But I was able to put them all together during one episode of The Diplomat, so that's totally doable.

OH – and if you don't have a Glass Craft Mat from Glassboard Studios, y'all – let this be your sign to get one. Even though I didn't use the magnetic feature of these, it's so easy to clean extra glue off of it! I built all these gingerbread on it and wouldn't do it any other way.

The blue you see is a silicone mat I used to hold the little pieces so the white pieces didn't get lost on my Glass Craft Mat.

Once they are all assembled, then it's time to turn this into a paper garland!

Turning Gingerbread into Garland

You need to decide right now how you want to attach your yummy looking gingerbread men to your garland. You can use a hole punch and thread your twine through, maybe a hole in each arm with the twine running behind it. You can also tape the back of your gingies to your twine or use a hot glue gun.

For me, I decided that I didn't want to punch holes in them, it just didn't feel right. And I wanted to be able to easily store it for next year. So I opted for mini clothespins to clip them onto the twine and it turned out so cute!

Grab your twine and your stocking holders. Decide where you want them and how far down you want your garland to drape. Tie off both ends of your twine – cut your twine on the correct side of the knot – yeah… not proud of that one, lol!!! But if you do, re-tie it and learn from your mistake!

Start in the middle and clip your first one then work your way out. I've found this to be a great way to get the spacing even.

To help break up the space in between my gingerbread boys and girls, I used some red gingham ribbon. I love the pop of red and it's festive, so a double win!

And my friends, that's it! An easy gingerbread garland in less time that it would take for me to find parking at a home decor store in November!

Alternatives:

Make a DIY felt gingerbread garland by changing out card stock for felt (especially if you are not hanging this in a dry place)
If using felt, use puffy paint to add trim to your DIY gingerbread garland
If you don't want to mess with tiny pieces or die cutting, either free hand or use a printable template (like clip art) then use acrylic paint pens to draw on your features.
Add some lights, mini copper string lights would be adorable!

Thank You

I so appreciate you being here today for this blog post on how to make a gingerbread garland! It's such an easy Christmas craft and it's doesn't take long at all to create it. It's a great craft to kick off the Christmas season. More ideas as headed your way. I love sharing makeable crafts with you! XOXO, Meg