I'm sharing how easy it is to craft an adorable clay gingerbread man canvas sign that would look so cute in any Christmas display!

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Welcome to the December edition of Thrifty Style Team. We decided to team up and offer a giveaway this year! Just a little way to spread some holiday cheer, which we are all so very much in need of this year! 💓

Last month we all shared a Christmas project, you can click here to check them all out!

Before we get to the giveaway, I want to share this sweet gingerbread man canvas sign that I made for my coffee/hot cocoa bar this holiday season.

This is my fifth Christmas canvas project this year! I'll be sharing a roundup of all the DIY canvas signs I made next week, and I'll be giving one of them away so please, if you're not already following me here on the blog, head to the sign up form at the bottom!

Gingerbread is one of my favorite holiday treats! I still remember my mom's gingerbread men, decorated with their icing faces, scarves and buttons. They were so cute and so yummy!

Well, the gingerbread man I made for this sign isn't edible. He's made from clay!

How to make a gingerbread man canvas sign

As with my other canvas signs, this one is made by deconstructing a canvas! You may not know that there's a really cute farmhouse sign hiding underneath a canvas! You can head here to see how easy it is to deconstruct a canvas.

Why canvas?

Simply put - it's readily available and cheap! You get the look of a farmhouse sign without having to buy or make a wood frame!

You do want to hang on to the actual canvas, as that will be the backdrop for our Christmas sign.

I decided to paint the wood frame for this sign using this duck egg blue chalk paint. This is one of my very favorite colors, it's so perfectly vintage...and it goes beautifully with red!

Once the paint dried, I reassembled my frame, flipping the canvas itself around first so the matte side was on the front. I stapled it to the back of the frame.

I used a jumbo gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut out a shape using this air dry clay. If you've never worked with air dry clay before, this brand is so easy to work with. You just roll out a small portion like you would cookie dough, and cut out shapes using cookie cutters.

After cutting out the gingerbread man, I used this set of alphabet stamps to stamp the word 'MERRY' onto the clay. I also carefully made a hanging hole at the top of his head with a wood skewer.

The clay takes 2 days to completely dry (make sure to flip it over the second day so the back can fully dry).

Once my clay gingerbread man was dry, I mixed up some acrylic paints (brown, tan and orange) until it resembled the color of gingerbread, and I painted 2 coats onto my gingerbread man.

Once dry, I hand stitched him onto my canvas sign and tied a bow around his neck using my favorite red striped ribbon.

At this point, don't ask me how, but I accidentally knocked one of his feet off! I was so upset with myself, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it forced me to think creatively! In the end, I think he turned out even cuter than if this accident hadn't occurred!

After gluing his foot back on, there was a noticeable crack that needed to be disguised so I decided to give him some painted Christmas boots!

Once the paint dried, I added some faux fur with white puffy paint. It was the perfect disguise for his broken foot, and made my little gingerbread man so much more festive! 🎅

I also used my Silhouette machine to cut out a holiday sentiment stencil, and painted it onto the sign using acrylic paint and a stencil brush.

This sweet gingerbread man sign is the perfect finishing touch to my coffee/hot cocoa bar! I just love it!

My coffee bar is the first place I head in the morning after I let Millie out! It's so fun to prepare my morning coffee at this festive little spot and my gingerbread man sign looks right at home!

Please PIN THIS IMAGE to remember!

Okay, onto the giveaway!

Thrifty Style Team Christmas Giveaway

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

The Thrifty Style Team is giving away a $125 Amazon gift card!!! Wouldn't that make your Christmas shopping easier?

Entering the giveaway is super simple! Just leave me a comment below telling me what your favorite Christmas cookies are! Don't forget to leave your email address so I can notify you if you win! You can break it up like this example cindydiybeautify @ gmail dot com for privacy's sake.

As always, I hope that you'll choose to follow my blog, and follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!

Giveaway is open to residents of the United States and Canada who are 18 and older. Giveaway will end Friday, December 18 at 12 EST and winner will be notified via email.

bringing beauty to the ordinary,

Featured at: The Pin Junkie