DIY Gingerbread Ornaments with the Cricut

Use your Cricut Maker to make Gingerbread Ornaments out of wood – then paint them in fun, bright colors! DIY Gingerbread Ornaments are easy to make with your Cricut and just a few craft supplies.

Are DIY Ornaments on your Christmas craft list? I’m partnering with some incredibly talented bloggers to kick off a Holiday Crafternoon series. We are using our Cricut machines throughout the holiday season to bring you tons of DIY Christmas ideas that you can make with your Cricut! This week, we are sharing DIY Christmas Ornaments! You can use all of our DIY ornament crafts as inspiration for decorating your own tree! From vinyl to felt, paper, and wood, you can use a variety of materials to make creative DIY ornaments with your Cricut machines.

I made a set of simple gingerbread ornaments that use just a few craft supplies that you may already have in your craft room! This project requires a Cricut Maker, since I used it to cut thin basswood gingerbread men. This DIY ornament idea is perfect if you aren’t interested in baking an actual gingerbread recipe to make ornaments – and you don’t have to worry about eating these ones. Ha!

Supplies you Need to Make DIY Gingerbread Ornaments

• Cricut Maker
• Knife Blade Tool, compatible only with the Cricut Maker
• Cricut Basswood (1/16″ thick)
• Craft Paint in White, Blue, Pink, & Green (that’s one of the sets I have from Amazon)
• Small Paint Brushes (such a good deal on Amazon!)
• Twine
• Hot Glue Gun

If you don’t have a Cricut machine, or you’re interested in upgrading, the Cricut Maker is a great option! It has a variety of tools that are unique to the the Maker, including the knife blade, rotary blade, scoring wheel, engraving tool, and more!

How to Make Gingerbread Ornaments DIY with a Cricut

The Gingerbread ornaments are a simple shape cut from Cricut Basswood using the Cricut Maker Knife Blade. You can design your own gingerbread shape, or use the Cricut Design Space file that I already have made by clicking the link below:

Gingerbread Ornaments in Cricut Design Space

The most important thing to remember when using your Knife Blade tool in the Cricut Maker is that you can only cut designs that are less than 11″ wide. If the designs you have on your canvas are wider than that, you have to rearrange them in Cricut Design Space. See below how they appear in the cut menu, and how I have to move them.

Here’s how the gingerbread men ornaments look when you first click the “Make It” button:

While in the first cut menu screen, you can move the shapes on your “mat,” making sure that they fit in your cutting area.

Once you have your designs arranged on the mat, you can continue on to the next screen. When using basswood, you need the purple StrongGrip mat. Place your basswood on the mat and secure all of the sides down with masking tape or a similar type of tape.

Select the 1/16″ Basswood from the cutting material menu, and follow the on screen instructions. Because the knife blade cuts in multiple passes, it WILL take longer than a typical cut project.

Cut Gingerbread Ornaments out of Wood with the Cricut Maker

My gingerbread men didn’t require the full amount of cutting passes that the Cricut recommended – I usually start watching when the machine has completed half of the passes. I pause the machine and check to see if the Knife bad has cut the whole way through. This particular design took about 10-11 of the 14 passes. Remove all of the gingerbread men ornaments carefully from the mat. Some of the edges might chip while the knife blade is cutting. Just leave them and you can flip the gingerbread men over when they’re all done.

Next, use 180 grit sandpaper to lightly sand the edges of the gingerbread ornaments so they are smooth.

Paint one side of the gingerbread white, and let dry. Then use whatever colors you would like to add designs! I used a small brush and blue, pink, and green paint to add modern stripes and gingham. I also used a little bit of white mixed in the colored paint to paint one layer of the gingham stripes:

Then I used the full color to paint the second layer of gingham stripes. Using two colors of paint gives some dimension to the gingham or buffalo plaid.

Use a hot glue gun to attach a small loop of ribbon to the back of each gingerbread man ornament.

I used a boxwood wreath to display all of my DIY Gingerbread Ornaments, but they would be so cute on a kids’ Christmas tree, garland, or you could even use them as gift tags! Keep reading to check out all of the other DIY Cricut Christmas Ornaments that my fellow bloggers have designed! PLUS, ENTER TO WIN A CRICUT EXPLORE AIR 2 BELOW!

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DIY Christmas Ornaments using a Cricut Machine

1. Tis the Season to Sparkle – Artsy Fartsy Mama
2. Gingerbread Cricut Ornaments – Pineapple Paper Co.
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4. DIY Paper Christmas Ornaments – Abbi Kirsten Collections
5. DIY Sloth Ornament – Brooklyn Berry Designs
6. Joy Christmas Ornament – SeeLindsay
7. Christmas Teacher Cricut Ornament – Happy Go Lucky
8. Easy DIY Christmas Ornaments – Everyday Party Mag
9. DIY Reindeer Hot Chocolate Ornament – Hello Creative Family
10. Easy Woodblock Cricut Ornament – Me and My Inklings
11. Easy Cricut Poinsettia Ornament – Kingston Crafts

Pin Gingerbread Ornaments DIY