Cardboard Gingerbread Houses

Hello again friends!

I wanted to pop in today and share a super quick Christmas DIY — Cardboard Gingerbread Houses. Amazon will supply you with all of the boxes you’ll ever want this holiday season, so why not turn them into a craft?

Since Thanksgiving, my home has been turned upside down decorating for Christmas. Are you also putting your home in it’s holiday attire? It is so much fun to go through all of the decorations and think of the great memories of Christmas past. I enjoy it so much.

Except lights. Lights make Christmas complicated. You want to be full of joy but pulling off dead lights, running to the store to find the right number of lights in the correct color is frustrating. Oh, and don’t forget to make sure the wiring is the right color. I made that mistake last week and accidentally got while wire for a green tree.

I so thought I had it under control. But, lights. Frustrating.

I have really liked the new trend of Christmas tree collars instead of tree skirts. I have a lot of trees and the skirts are sometimes harder for me to keep looking good and they take up a lot of floor space.

My kitchen tree is mainly gingerbread men and cooking items. It sits in the doorway from the kitchen to the dining room which is the most traveled area in my house. I wanted a tree collar but the standard tree collars I have seen at Home Depot and Hobby Lobby are made for normal size trees.

I decided to make my own as simply and inexpensively as possible.

I found a wooden cheese wheel box years ago at an antique store and decided to use it for the base.

I measured the height of the box and used this as a guide as to how high I would make my gingerbread houses.

For this craft, you will need:

• cardboard
• x-acto knife and/or box cutters
• yard stick or something with a straight edge
• scissors
• white craft paint
• white puff paint (optional)
• clear satin spray paint (optional)

I began by drawing out different house shapes on the cardboard. I used a yard stick to measure the height and to keep my lines straight and even.

Next, gently trace down the lines you’ve drawn with your box cutters or x-acto knife. Be sure you are cutting on an area that is protected. (I don’t want lines cut on your nice kitchen table!)

For me, it was easier to gently trace a guideline through the first layer of cardboard and then take either the x-acto knife or scissors to cut through the second layer. When I pressed too hard to try to cut both layers at the same time, my lines were not as straight.

Now the fun begins! You can pull in the whole family and let them each paint their own house. I only used basic craft paint and a paintbrush but you could add a little depth with puff paint. I like puff paint but have trouble squeezing it out of the tube in a consistent line.

Yep, old lady needs reading glasses to craft with now. I made this house to match our actual house. As you can easily see, my painting skills are very basic. I kept my houses simple.

After this step, I lightly sprayed each house with a clear satin spray paint. The paint gives the cardboard a little sheen and makes the white paint pop a little more.

After I got all of the houses painted and dried, I gathered them together in the floor and lined them up around the cheese wheel. The best temporary adhesive I have found for projects like this is Dashes. I ordered mine from Amazon. The adhesive is pretty much like what is used on the 3M hangers you buy at the store.

And now I have a gingerbread house village tree collar!

As Ina Garten would say, “How easy was that?”.

Remember that all decorations do not have to come from a store and thinking outside of the “box” (pun intended) can give you fun and inexpensive one-of-a-kind Christmas decorations!

Thank you so much for stopping by Mulch and Paint today! I hope you come back again soon!

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