Gingerbread Pirates craft

As I mentioned earlier I love Christmas crafts, and I try to let my kids just have fun and not worry about the product.  I’ve found it works much better that way if I make my own version of the craft. So, I’m going to share my version of how I thought the gingerbread pirate craft would turn out, and then the kids’ version of the gingerbread pirate craft for comparison.

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First, start off by reading The Gingerbread Pirates with your kiddos.  I love this book (as I mentioned in my Christmas books post), and I am ever so thankful to Almost Unschoolers (I’ve linked to her craft at the bottom along with another of her gingerbread crafts) for introducing that book to me.

Then get ready for some Gingerbread Pirate crafting fun!

Gingerbread Pirate craft supplies

empty cereal box, School Glue, Glitter Glue Pens- Bonus Bucket Set of 50 (yes I buy it in a 50 box tub), wiggle eyes (have you seen these Peel & Stick Wiggle Eye Sheets? My daughter would love them.)

Optional extra supplies: Wood Toothpicks, Big Box Of Pipe Cleaners (I need a big box because my kids make these pipe cleaner creations)

Gingerbread Pirate craft

Trace or draw your own gingerbread man (I cheated and printed out this Gingerbread man small outline)

Then cut your guy out.  If you want to have any peg legs or anything make sure you cut out mirror images.  Batman ended up with a 4 way amputee because he kept cutting it out wrong.

Spread glue all over your gingerbread pirate.  Put a ribbon loop at the top and add any peg legs or hooks you need to add.  Then smash the two layers together (sorry this photo is blurry)

Put a drop of glue to add the wiggly eye.  Then start adding details with the glitter glue.

As you’re adding the glue you can spread the glitter glue out with your fingers to get a smoother effect (or if you accidentally get a blob of glue).

My kids’ gingerbread pirate crafts, and what I learned in this craft

As you can see we had a wide variety of gingerbread pirates ornaments.  They all turned out very much like their owners.

Princess who is much more of a follow the directions and the rules has a pirate remarkably similar to mine.

Batman charged ahead and just started cutting, then discovered his peg legs didn’t match up, so his pirate had two peg legs.  He repeated the same mistake in creating a hook for his pirate, so then his pirate had 2 hooks as well.

Superman watched Batman charge in headlong and decided to not cut off any parts of his pirate.  Instead, he made a pirate because he had already cut it out, then made his own version of the project and created a Minecraft guy.  Which Batman then decided was a great idea and did the same thing.

My tips for you if you create your own gingerbread pirates craft:

• I’d pre-cut the general shape.  I don’t remember the kids having this much trouble last year, or I must have pre-cut them.
• If you’re not making an ornament, then just make it one-sided.  Last year ours were one-sided and the kids had fun playing with them as toys.
• Have paper towels on hand to clean up the extra glitter glue that will happen.

Some other cute Gingerbread crafts

• Almost Unschoolers Gingerbread bubble wrap
• Blog She Wrote, Gingerbread geography quest
• Almost Unschoolers Gingerbread Pirates craft

And don’t forget to check out all of the other book inspired kid-made ornaments over at Mama Miss.