Today I’m excited to share with you a fun and easy DIY project that you can do with your family or friends: decorating unfinished gingerbread houses!
When I was at Michael’s the other day I found wooden unfinished gingerbread houses and thought they would be a perfect project to make and share with you all. It’s a perfect combination of budget-friendly project and doable (even for my not-to-crafty followers). My goal is to make them look like real gingerbread. I decided to give them a rustic look by painting them brown and adding glitter and white puffy paint icing.
Gingerbread House Transformation: From Unfinished to Fabulous
In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the steps of how I decorated my gingerbread houses. I’ll also share some tips and tricks for creating your own unique gingerbread houses too.
Gather Your Supplies
For this DIY gingerbread house project, I will be making over 3 unfinished wood houses to create my Christmas village. I used the same technique on all 3: paint, add glitter, and pipe with dimensional fabric paint.
I am using a white metallic fabric paint but if you don’t want the shimmer buy the regular white paint. Another optional step will be adding glitter to the houses, I will demonstrate how it looks so you can decide when you are making your houses.
What You Will Need For This Project
- Unfinished Wood Village Houses
- (2) DecoArt Milk Chocolate Paint
- Mod Podge
- Iridescent or Clear Glitter
- Tulip Metallics White Fabric Paint(4oz)
- optional: baking soda or plaster of paris to add texture to paint.
Other craft stores carry unfinished wood houses too, I found some cute ones at Joann.
Paint The Gingerbread Houses
The first step is to paint the wooden houses with brown acrylic paint to create a gingerbread house look. The closest shade of craft paint that I found was DecoArt in the shade Milk Chocolate. To paint the 3 houses with 2 coats you will need 2 bottles of paint.
To add a “cookie” texture to the paint I mixed in a little bit of Plaster of Paris, baking soda works the exact same way but I had the Plaster on hand from other projects. This step isn’t necessary if you don’t have baking soda on hand, just adds a fun touch.
Sprinkle in the baking soda (or plaster) and stir to combine, when you can tell the paint looks thicker you’ve added enough.
You will need to do 2 coats of paint to get an even coverage on the houses, let the paint dry between coats.
Add A Glittery Finish
I wanted to give my gingerbread houses a little extra twinkle, so I generously sprinkled fine iridescent glitter over their entire surface (it photographs a bluish-green but it is clear) . You could also opt for a subtler look by glittering just the roofs or adding a few sparkly accents.
To lock the glitter in place, give the areas you want to sparkle a quick coat of Mod Podge using a sponge brush.
After you have finished the glittering process let the houses completely dry before moving on the “icing”
To keep your workspace glitter-free, cover it with newspaper or kraft paper before you start. Glitter has a knack for finding its way everywhere!
Time To Add The Icing
This was the fun part! The dimensional fabric paint comes in a bottle with a super fine tip. It’s very similar to piping icing on Christmas cookies. Just run a bead of the paint wherever you want on the houses.
I followed the outline of the roof, around all the windows, etc. The houses had some details on them like wreaths on the windows and a cross on the front of the church, I piped on the paint there as well.
The most enjoyable part was using the dimensional fabric paint! It was like piping icing on a Christmas cookie. The dimensional fabric paint comes in a bottle with a super fine tip. I carefully outlined the roofs, windows, wreaths, and cross with the paint.
To get that traditional gingerbread house look I even created designs on the roof of each house. I also did different patterns but that is up to you.
Don’t worry about perfection! I’ve always been a bit of a cookie decorating disaster, so I just let loose and had fun with these gingerbread houses.
The easiest roof pattern of the 3 houses was a simple criss-cross that I did on the church. I painted all the lines from left to right, then did the lines to cross it from right to left
The fabric paint takes a long time to completely dry, don’t get anxious because it’s easy to mess it up! I let the houses dry overnight before decorating with them.
Style For The Holidays
Once the paint is completely dry, it’s time to bring your Christmas village to life. I started by using a cedar garland as a backdrop for the gingerbread houses. Next, I added a small tree to the back of the shelf. To complete the scene, I filled in the gaps with small bottlebrush trees, orange slices, and wood snowflake ornaments for a festive touch.
See your projects featured! If you are inspired by this or any of my other DIY projects I would love to see them and add you to the Reader’s Spotlight gallery. Send a photo to me at jennifer@cottageonbunkerhill.com
xo, Jennifer
More Fun Holiday Projects
Here is another Christmas Village idea to try! This one also starts with unfinished wooden houses, in this case birdhouses. This is an easy project, just paint and glitter!
Bottlebrush Tree Wreath
Looking for another fun DIY project? Try this adorable bottlebrush tree wreath! If you can operate a hot glue gun you can make this one!
Gingerbread Salt Dough Projects
Mix up a batch of gingerbread salt dough and learn how to create ornaments, a garland, and the cutest gingerbread man wreath!
Christmas
22 DIY Ornaments
Learn to Make 22 Different Christmas Ornaments!
These turned out so great! Hope I get one in the mail!
I’ll bring it to you!