These Gingers have Soul

I'm not a cookie person (chips are more my thang) however Christmas cookies are an exception! Since I live in Belize where it's generally 100 degrees (ooh rhyming), using a hot oven is not a fave past time. Anyways, feeling crafty I was inspired by cookie clipart and set out to make some gingerbread ornaments from craft foam.

I thought I would document the process in case a fellow Christmas-crayzee wants to try it for themselves.

Follow along with the pictures:

1. Make templates: Trace shapes onto cardboard to make your templates (I recycled cereal boxes for this project). Then using a pencil or ball-point pen, use the template to trace the shape onto brown foam sheets.
2. Cut shapes out: Carefully cut out your ornament from the foam. I find that small, needle tip scissors work best.
3. Crispy-fy your cookie: To get a sort of "crispy cookie" scorched edge effect, use an oil pastel crayon along the edges. I guess you can also paint the edges if you prefer.
4. Icing time: I ran out of white puffy paint, so I experimented with "icing' options. In the end, I used my glue gun silicone glue to create the raised icing effect. You can also use puffy paint or even flat white paint.
5. Berry nice: Using a single hole punch, I cut "berries' from a sheet of glittery foam, then glued them in place.
6. Paint your icing: The dried silicone glue lines were painted with white acrylic paint to look more like icing. I applied a several coats with a thin brush.
7. Voila! You just no-baked cookies! Add magnets or a ribbon/string and you're good to dough...I mean go!