Make a felt gingerbread house with this tutorial--it's a three dimensional gingerbread house toy, covered in felt, with felt and yarn "candy" decorations that children can use again and again for mess-free Christmas gingerbread house play.
Do you love DIY Christmas gifts? I do. There's something magical about a gift not just given with thoughtfulness, but MADE with you in mind. DIY gifts are the theme of the day in the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop, and I've created a DIY felt gingerbread house decorating toy you can make for any kids in your life. It's a three dimensional gingerbread house made of felt and cardboard, that children can decorate over and over again. And you can even keep all the felt candies and gingerbread house decorations stored inside the felt gingerbread house between play sessions!
It's Day 2 and we are sharing DIY Gift Ideas! I'm sharing how to make a DIY felt gingerbread house toy that a child can decorate over and over again.
The roof of the felt gingerbread house even flips up to reveal a storage space for all of the felt candies and gingerbread house decorations.
There's no messy glue for the kids to use--the felt sticks to other felt, even on vertical surfaces! So the kids can decorate this gingerbread house over and over again.
I'm pretty proud of myself for thinking of keeping all of the felt candy decorations inside the gingerbread house toy.
Materials for DIY Felt Gingerbread House Decorating Toy:
- brown felt
- foam core (the cheapest place to get this is the dollar store)
- low temperature hot glue gun
- craft knife
- red and white striped pipe cleaners
- white felt
- white yarn
- glitter
- candy striped ribbon
- craft pom poms
Dimensions of the Foam Pieces:
- Sides (cut 2): 4"x4" squares
- Roof (cut 2): 6"x12" rectangles
- Front and back (cut 2): The base is 10" wide. The side of the house is 4" tall. The house is 12" tall at the highest point in the center. Draw a line between the peak at the top of the side and you'll get a sloped roof line that is 9.5" long.
Cut the pieces of the gingerbread house toy out of foam core or cardboard. I love working with foam core for projects like this, and the best price I've found for it is at my local dollar store. It's much more expensive in craft stores.
Cut pieces of brown felt to cover both the front and the back of each piece of the foam core gingerbread house.
The front piece is more generously cut, so I can wrap the fabric around the edges of the foam core pieces. The back/inside is precisely cut in the same shape as the foam core pieces.
Glue the sides, front, back, and bottom of the felt gingerbread house together.
the roof piece(s) are done slightly differently. I wanted to create a hinged roof that could open on my toy gingerbread house, so I cut the two roof pieces out of foam-core, but the felt covering both roof pieces is connected at the center. Glue the roof piece to only one half of the gingerbread house, so the other roof flap can lift up and reveal the treasure trove of felt gingerbread house decorations inside.
I also glued fluffy white yarn on my felt gingerbread house to mimic the white royal icing used to hold gingerbread houses together. It's not a functional, critical step by any means, but it is a nice touch to really emphasize the look of a gingerbread house.
I also made felt door and window decorations with felt and yarn. They stick to other felt-covered surfaces beautifully.
Every gingerbread house needs candies, and these pepperminuts made from twisted red and white pipe cleaners are perfect for this felt gingerbread house activity. The pipe cleaner peppermint swirls stick right to the felt of the gingerbread house toy.
Other "candies" for the felt gingerbread house were created with a glue gun and some white felt and some glitter.
The plain gingerbread house sits, just waiting to be played with and decorated.
I am a BIG fan of self-contained toys! Put all the gingerbread house decorations away inside the toy gingerbread house when you're done.
And have fun decorating the gingerbread house over and over again, in completely new ways.
What little gingerbread-baker-in-training needs this felt gingerbread house toy?