Make a gingerbread house paper craft scene

Make a gingerbread house inspired scene with bits and pieces of paper and wrapping. Making a real gingerbread house is lovely but sometimes it’s good to just have a rummage through odds and ends of paper and card and create something festive.

I always keep wrapping paper scraps and christmas card pictures as they make great almost free craft materials.

Here’s some inspiration for your pictures..

Here’s my finished gingerbread house street scene

Gingerbread house street scene made with paper and craft materials

This would be a great activity to make at home in those days between Christmas and New Year or on Christmas Eve!

All you need to make a gingerbread house inspired scene

  • Paper for the background – I put two A4 pieces together with tape. (Have the tape on the back of your picture)
  • Paper to cut into house shapes and trees. I went with simple shapes.
  • Wrapping paper and Christmas cards cut into shapes
  • Small hearts, snow flakes, circles
  • Optional – glitter, sequins, tinsel
  • Glue

Use whatever you like – and whatever you have.

If you want to do this with very young children prepare the shapes of paper beforehand and make them slightly bigger so they are easier to hold and stick. Children’s interests vary so if children love making they will spend a bit longer creating a paper picture. If you are doing this at home make your own version alongside your child or create a street scene together.

Older children can be encouraged to make the shapes for the trees and houses themselves and create their own gingerbread paper art from scratch. Give them lots of choice of materials.

There’s an idea in this post for making a mini ‘gingerbread’ house using biscuits. It’s very easy to do and lots of fun!

If you would like to make an edible gingerbread house here’s a link to a Mary Berry recipe.

Christmas Paper Plate Ideas

These paper plates were made as an aid to telling the Christmas story but they could easily be adapted to be crafts. I had a lot of fun making them 🙂 They would make a lovely family craft activity to make during advent and then display at Christmas. And if you want a family craft at a church group then there is lots for a child and adult to enjoy.

All you need  – good quality paper plates (these were from waitrose!), wool, tissue paper, material, triangles for the body shapes, heart shapes for the angel wings, shredded tissue paper, cotton wool, cardboard tubes/rolls. And any art/collage supplies you fancy! For glue I used double sided tape for the cardboard tubes and glue sticks.

angel visits Mary

the baby in the manger

angels visit the shepherds

 

 

Paper Plate Christingle

I so wanted to make something like this last year but just ran out of time. So this year I was determined to make a craft focusing on Christingle. This is not necessarily instead of making the real thing. This craft could be done as an extra activity or used for very young children that you would rather didn’t have a candle.

The basic shape is drawn on a paper plate (this needs to be sturdy) and then I used paint. I would have used red ribbon but it was being elusive! The ‘sweets’ are beads on pipe cleaners. Do this for young children or alongside them as the beads are small. I attached these with cellotape.

Have a look at The Children’s Society website for more about the history of the Christingle.

SAM_1224 SAM_1225 SAM_1226 SAM_1227

 

Super-easy icicle Christmas tree decoration

I found this decoration idea on Pinterest. Take a look at the original by Happy Hooligans here. It is so simple and easy to make but also looks great. There is no need for glue or paint either!

All you need are some glittery pipe cleaners, beads – I used circular and star shaped and a pencil to wrap the pipe cleaner around to make the spiral shape.

SAM_1741

SAM_1742

Make a ‘knot’ at the bottom of the spiral by twisting the pipe cleaner around a few times so that the beads don’t fall off.

SAM_1748

Thread the beads on. I chose to leave spaces between groups of three. At the end of the pipe cleaner make a hook shape so it will hang from the Christmas tree.

SAM_1745

I loved making this craft. It is so simple but looks fabulous! It is only suitable for children over 5 years old as the beads are a chocking hazard.

SAM_1756

Free Email Updates
Get the latest content first.
We respect your privacy.
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Decline
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookie name Active
Save settings
Cookies settings