Make a Gingerbread House Garland

I think the entire world knows how much I love a garland, and not only at Christmas! Last Christmas I used orange slices, cedar, and cinnamon sticks all over the house. This year I was super inpsired by a gingerbread house garland I saw on Pinterest and decided to make one of my own using my Cricut Maker 3. But, don’t let your lack of a Cricut machine stop you from giving this craft a try. You could easily create a template to trace some houses or even freehand them!

I’ve draped my houses along the mantel and over our kitchen dresser. This gingerbread house garland would also be super sweet in a kid’s room, draped along the rangehood in your kitchen, or as a decoration in your pantry.

Here’s how to make one, plus a free template for you to use.

Supplies for a Gingerbread House Garland

To make around 18 little houses:

• 3 pieces of 12 x 12 inch cardstock. I used American Crafts cardstock from Spotlight in the colour BROWN SUGAR but any brownish colour is suitable
• Gingerbread house template/download
• Bakers twine in red. I buy mine at the supermarket
• Pearl white glitter glue (or glitter + glue. White puff paint would look great too!)
• White paint pen
• Scissors
• Cricut Maker 3 (this is OPTIONAL)
• Mini craft pegs from the $2 shop

To Make the Gingerbread House Garland

If Using A Cricut:

• Upload the SVG images provided into Cricut Design Space. Make sure you click ‘COMPLEX’ during the upload so any background is removed.
• Once uploades you be able to resize the houses if you wish. They currently fit on A4 cardstock but can easily be resized to fit 30cmx30cm.
• Unlock the images and alter the width/height of some houses to make them look more custom, so each one or two looks different.
• Click MAKE and follow your Cricut machine’s cutting instructions.

If Making by Hand:

• Print out your sheet of houses onto a sheet of paper or card. Enlarge if you would like some houses bigger.
• Cut around each house, including inside the little windows.
• Using each house as a template (or even inspiration to design your own) trace around the house and windows/doors onto your card.
• Cut out the houses. Its up to you if you cut out the windows/doors. You might like to colour them black so they look cut out. I drew doors on some of mine

Finishing your Gingerbread House Garland

It does not matter if you have used a Cricut or cut by hand the finishing touches are the same.

• Using the white paint pen, outline the houses and fill in some details so they look like a gingerbread cookie
• I had to go over the white paint a couple of times to get a really white look on this colour of card
• Use glitter glue or spinkle glitter along some of the edges to add ‘snow.’
• When the houses are dry, cut a string as long as the area you want to hang your garland in. Mine is about 1.5m long.
• Tie a knot in each end and peg your little houses, spacing them evenly. An odd number works best as you can put the first house in the middle of the garland and then space the others from there

TIP: I put a hole punch in the top of my houses and threaded them onto the string. THIS WAS A HUGE FAIL! The houses kept turning to the side. When I pegged them on they stayed flat and faced the front.