Tool Time Tuesday...Sandpaper Gingerbread Ornaments

Hi everyone! Welcome to another Tool Time Tuesday. This time we are in the paint section of the hardware store...for sandpaper!!

I start thinking about Christmas and decorating the house for the holidays in the summer. I have lots of projects, decorations and fun things I make for the Christmas, so I need to start early. I have a theme tree with gingerbread men that I haven't used in a few years, because I need more things to decorate it. I would rather make a lot of the items than buy them, so that's where today's tutorial comes in.

Sandpaper Gingerbread People...

I wanted a fast and easy way to make "gingerbread" and this was it...no recipe or baking required! Lol

I wanted to make the ornaments out of sandpaper for the textured look of the grit, so off I went to the hardware store. Much to my dismay, this is what I saw.

PURPLE sandpaper. Crazy!! There wasn't one package of brown sandpaper in the store. I think manufacturers are making sandpaper purple to attract the female consumer, but I need BROWN!!!

Next store...Woo Hoo, brown!!

Sandpaper comes in many different grits. The higher the number the finer the grit, so you can decide what type of "gingerbread" look you want.

I picked 220 grit and used cookie cutters to trace the shape. You can use anything to trace your ornament. You can even go online and use free templates.

Line up your stencils, templates or cookie cutters and try to get the most out of your sheet of sandpaper.

Flipping them upside down let me fit in three in each row.

I can get five out of each sheet with the size of my cookie cutters.

A little side note. Don't use your good sewing scissors, but the sandpaper did sharpen my older craft scissors.

Now we're ready to decorate our gingerbread people.

You can use a white paint pen or squeeze bottle for the "frosting", but I had lots of mini trim and ric rac.

and don't forget all the beads and baubles!

 You can decorate your ornaments any way you like.

I will add a ribbon to the back once I get them all finished and decide how I want to place them on the tree.

I loved doing this project, but I think this would be great to do with children, grandchildren, school or church projects etc.

I also think these would make great gift tags and if you make them smaller, you could string them together for a garland.

I know I could have made real gingerbread, but that wouldn't have been a fun "Tool Time" for you.

Have a great day,
~Karen~