{"id":4117,"date":"2018-10-14T12:03:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-14T12:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/?p=4117"},"modified":"2020-11-18T14:48:53","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T14:48:53","slug":"paper-mache-gingerbread-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Paper mach\u00e9 gingerbread men!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I made these evil paper mach\u00e9 gingerbread men (excuse me, gingerbread <em>people!<\/em>) for Halloween 2018. They were easy!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-07.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-07.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mache gingerbread men - finished!\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I started by designing a basic gingerbread man shape in Photoshop so it would fit on a sheet of 20&#8243; x 30&#8243; foam board (aka foam core). I printed it out as several pages, taped &#8217;em together, and cut the shape out.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-01.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-01.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mach\u00e9 gingerbread men - cutting out foam board\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I traced the gingerbread man shape onto two sheets of foam board; one for the front and one for the back. There are four pieces in the above pic, for two gingerbread men. (Math!) Not shown: I also drew a gingerbread lady shape with a skirt, and cut out two copies for her.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-02.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-02.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mach\u00e9 gingerbread men - foam board supports\"><\/a><\/p>\n <div class=\"ad-300x250 ad-float-right\">\r\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- MMS 300x250 -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5009313124668288\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3616150394\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>I cut out some 1&#8243; foam board strips and assembled them into little triangle shapes to act as supports between the two gingerbread dude shapes. I taped these in place, and then I laid the top panel in place and connected everything with a few pieces of tape.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-03.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-03.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mach\u00e9 gingerbread men - assembling the front and back\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I cut out strips of poster board (and construction paper when I ran out of poster board) to serve as walls that go all the way around the edges of the gingerbread men. I attached these with lots of masking tape.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted one of the gingerbread people to be holding a big kitchen knife, so I made plan to give her a curled arm\/hand.<\/p>\n<p>For this knife-wielding gingerbread lady, I wanted to curl up her right arm in both the front and back sheet of foam board. However, you can imagine how the arm for the back panel wouldn&#8217;t be long enough; if you curl both pieces forward, the back arm would end up being way too short to curl all the way around to the front. So I chopped off the gingerbread lady&#8217;s arm on the back panel and replaced it with a longer one; I just figured out the right length through some trial and error.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-04.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-04.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mach\u00e9 gingerbread men - curling the hand\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I taped the longer arm in place and curled it forward to wrap around toward the front with the longer one. I used a long piece of tape to connect the hand to the torso, to hold it in place while I worked on it.<\/p>\n<p>I curled up two small strips of foam board and stuck them in between the front and back panels of the arm, to pad the arm out a bit. I taped everything together, and taped some small strips of poster board around the edge of the hand and arm. After all this stuff was taped together, I snipped the long piece of masking tape that was holding the hand to the torso, and it stayed perfectly in place, nice and curled and 3d.<\/p>\n<h2>Making a paper mach\u00e9 knife<\/h2>\n<p>I wrote a separate article about making the kitchen knife; you can see that <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/making-a-paper-mache-kitchen-knife\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Time for paper mach\u00e9<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-05.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-05.jpg\" alt=\"Gingerbread men decorations - paper mache\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At this stage, I applied two layers of paper mach\u00e9 over all three of the gingerbread people. You can read about my paper mach\u00e9 process and materials <a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/my-paper-mache-method\/\">here<\/a>. The short version is: I use <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2LYmQsW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roman PRO-543 universal wallpaper adhesive<\/a> (paid link) and alternating layers of newspaper and brown wrapping paper.<\/p>\n<div class=\"am-item\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00FK8VNJE\/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;linkCode=li3&amp;tag=manningkrull-20&amp;linkId=c750f16dcb0f016ec23f35d64e1c3348&amp;language=en_US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&amp;ASIN=B00FK8VNJE&amp;Format=_SL250_&amp;ID=AsinImage&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;WS=1&amp;tag=manningkrull-20&amp;language=en_US\"><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=manningkrull-20&amp;language=en_US&amp;l=li3&amp;o=1&amp;a=B00FK8VNJE\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\"><\/div>\n<h2>Painting and decorating<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-06.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-06.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mache gingerbread men - spray painting\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When the paper mach\u00e9 was dry, I took the gingerbread men outside and spray painted them a tan color. (Yes, I painted the brown paper brown; maybe this was dumb!)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/gingerbread-skeleton.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/gingerbread-skeleton.jpg\" alt=\"Gingerbread skeleton DIY project\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I cut out all the shapes for the icing\/candies\/whatever from craft foam \u2014 this rubbery foam stuff you can buy in colorful sheets at any art store. I used Tacky Glue to glue all the pieces in place. I also glued the knife in place in the gingerbread lady&#8217;s hand with a hot glue gun.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-07.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/paper-mache-gingerbread-men-decorations-07.jpg\" alt=\"Paper mache gingerbread men - finished!\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All done! Check out all these little creeps together!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I made these evil paper mach\u00e9 gingerbread men (excuse me, gingerbread people!) for Halloween 2018. They were easy! I started by designing a basic gingerbread man shape in Photoshop so it would fit on a sheet of 20&#8243; x 30&#8243; foam board (aka foam core). I printed it out as several pages, taped &#8217;em together, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,221,303,330,14,3,169],"class_list":["post-4117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-decoration","tag-food","tag-gingerbread-house","tag-gingerbread-men","tag-halloween","tag-paper-mache","tag-sculpture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4117"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5975,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions\/5975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manningkrull.com\/manningmakesstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}