Clay Gingerbread Man Cookie Ornaments

I love to hang gingerbread men on my Christmas tree, but they always end up breaking or discoloring into something that is just not attractive. These simple clay ornaments are painted to look just like the real gingerbread men, only they will last for years and years. You will need a day or two to make these clay gingerbread men ornaments because after you cut out the shapes, you need to let them dry before you paint them.

To Make Clay Gingerbread Man Cookie Ornaments You Will Need:

Air Drying clay
Tooth Pick
Brown Acrylic paint
Tan Acrylic paint
Red Acrylic Paint
Green Acrylic paint
White a black Acrylic paint
Ribbon
Paring Knife
Rolling pin
Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutters

Start by rolling out a slab of clay that is about 1/8" to 1/4 " thick. Cut out your gingerbread men just as if they were cookies. I love to make a lot of different sizes of gingerbread men. It really adds a great look to my Christmas tree. Peel them up and lay them on a flat surface to dry. You need to use your toothpick to poke small hole near the top of the ornament. This will be to string a ribbon through, so make the hole large enough.

Now, you can add the details while the clay I still wet or simply paint on details once the clay had dried.

I like to use extra clay to make embellishments that look like the candy your might normally decorate your gingerbread man cookies with. For example, roll a tiny piece of clay in the palm of your hand to make the shape of a red hot, which is used for buttons. Press it gently into the stomach of you clay gingerbread man. You can repeat this to make eyes.

To make a twissler scarf cut out a thing strip from your slab of clay. Use your toothpick to carve in the twistler designs. I like to use a little water painted onto the neck of the gingerbread man to attach this.

You can also roll out tiny little coils to make the mouth. These little coils also look great for icing decoration on the wrists and ankles.

If you want to have a bumpy cookie texture on your clay ornament your can achieve this a few different ways. Before I add any embellishments I like to roll a clean golf ball lightly over the main body of the clay ginger bread man ornament. This is the perfect way to texture the surface and make it really look like cookie dough!

Once your clay gingerbread man has dried you need to paint the entire surface with your brown paint. I like to dab this on with a paintbrush or sponge. So that the brown is not complete flat you can dab on some tan or lighter brown paint randomly too. A sea sponge works great for this. Go ahead and cover the entire surface. Get in all of the cracks and crevices.

Once the brown cookie color paint has dried you can paint any of your details an embellishments. Allow this final layer of paint to dry. Now, you can add a clear coat of acrylic spray paint to give your Christmas tree ornament some shine, or simply leave it matte.

String a beautiful red ribbon through the gingerbread man ornament and you have a wonderful hand made ornament that will last for years!

If you do not want to paint your gingerbread men ornaments try buying an air drying clay in a Mexican clay color. This will make your ornaments look like terra cotta pot material!