Make Some Sweet Wooden Gingerbread Christmas Decorations

I made two different gingerbread related decorations out of wood this year. The gingerbread theme is a Christmas favourite of mine. The smell and taste of gingerbread always puts me in the festive mood. Last year I posted ideas for a gingerbread workshop. If the wood was prepped, both of these could be used as crafts for one of those workshops.

The idea for the first project came when my brother-in-law’s wife had asked me if we had any wood to make Christmas houses. I wasn’t sure exactly what she meant but it was basically pieces of 2X6 or 2X8 with angled cuts on one end to resemble a roof. You then paint on the windows and doors with white paint.

I decided I wanted to make one as a gingerbread house. I cut a 7.5” scrap piece of 2X6 with 45° cuts for the roof. I decided to paint the wood with Raw Sienna brown paint. Once that was dry I used some board game punch outs to get the shapes for the windows and door, drawing the lines in pencil before painting over it. The candy canes were images I found online then copied onto the wood.

The next project I decided to make after making the Christmas barn. I wanted a gingerbread man with 3D features added on top made of wood kind of like I did with the barn doors and windows.
I drew a 10.5×10.5 square on a piece of cardboard then roughly drew out my gingerbread man in that square. I find going over the lines a number of times when sketching helps to get a shape to form better. I knew my three pallet boards were each 3.5 inches wide (10.5” total). I traced the cardboard onto the wood then glued together three pallet board scraps trying to avoid a couple holes I had in the boards.

My next task was cutting the shape out with the bandsaw.

The wood glue always dries quite yellow and paint does not adhere well to it so I used the orbital sander to clean it off.

I drew some shapes on some cardboard for the leg and arms icing lines, a mouth and a bow tie. I cut them out and traced them on some scrap wood. It was tricky cutting out such small pieces with the bandsaw but I maneuvered the wood with the eraser end of a pencil in each hand so as to not cut off a finger. For the eyes and buttons, I found some wooden screw hole fillers for furniture.