Brown paper gingerbread held up with strings

... this project is one of my favorite things!

I made these decorative gingerbread men many years ago, and they are still holding up well.  You can see them peeking out through the plaid bows and fabric trees on the chandelier in the photo above.

It seemed to me that it was time to post a craft project here in my daily December posts.  But what to write about?  I knew I'd written about these on my Christmas blog some time ago,  so I checked to see if I'd posted about them here at my kitchen table.  Apparently not!  So here we go.

These ornaments are simple and fun, so I thought others might like to try them as well.

You will need:

* Brown paper bag or a roll of brown kraft paper
* Pencil
* Gingerbread man cookie cutter (optional)
* Polyester fiberfill
* Sewing machine (threaded with color thread of your choice; white, tan, brown, or even red would work)
* Pins
* Thread and needle
* Scissors
* Dimensional squeeze-bottle paints in white, black (or dark brown)  and red

1. First draw (or trace, using the cookie cutter) two gingerbread man shapes for each ornament on the brown paper.  Cut out the shapes.

2. Pin the 2 shapes together and machine-sew most of the way around them, leaving room to poke in some fiberfill.  You don't want them too puffy; just use enough to give them a little dimension.

3. After adding the fiberfill, finish sewing the rest of the way around the shape.  Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of your stitching.

4. Thread a needle and add a hanging loop to the top of the gingerbread man by piercing it with the needle, going through both layers.  Trim to size desired and knot ends of thread together at the top.

5. Add eyes, smile, buttons, white "icing" trim and a little red heart if desired, using dimensional paint.

6. Allow paint to dry before hanging the ornament wherever you'd like.

These cute gingerbread men could be used in numerous ways.  If you eliminate the strings (or even if you don't), they would look cute piled in a bowl, maybe with a few real or faux apples and a few evergreen sprigs.

They can be hung from a chandelier as I have often done.  They would look really nice hung in the panes of a window, perhaps with a sprig of evergreen or holly or a red bow tied at the top.  You could use them to trim an indoor wreath or tie them to a wrapped gift.  And of course you could always hang them on the Christmas tree.

Have fun with this idea!