Gingerbread House from a Brown Paper Bag

This charming gingerbread house is made from an ordinary brown paper bag! So much fun to make with the kids!

You will need:

Brown lunch bag
Brown card stock paper
Scissors
Self-healing mat
Utility knife
Vellum paper
Glue
Paints
LED tea lights

About half way down a closed paper bag, make 2 diagonal cuts to make a pointed top in the center.
Draw windows and door of gingerbread house and use a self-healing mat and utility knife to cut out the voids.
Cut vellum paper to fit voids and glue to inside of brown paper bag.
Open bag and cut the points off the two short sides of the bag. This will ensure that your roof can sit easily on the bag.
To make the roof, cut a piece of rectangle from cardstock paper to fit the top of your brown paper bag. Fold the rectangle in half to pitch the roof. For a seamless look, add a band of cardstock to the inside of the paper bag joining the two-pitched points and sit the roof on this band.
Once you have the structure of your gingerbread house, decorate it with paints any way you like. When dry, open bag again and place LED tea lights inside.

TIP:

Photography by Manal Aman

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Gingerbread House from a Brown Paper Bag

Manal Aman

My name is Manal and I’m the face behind Hello Holy Days! I love making crafts and I host a lot of parties. I used to watch way too much HGTV for a 10-year-old kid and as a 15 year old, while my peers were busy subscribing to teen magazines, I was subscribing to home decor magazines (and implementing all the party and entertaining tips I found inside them.) When I was in my last year of high school and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I knew I had to follow my passion.

So I started building my career working at lifestyle magazines while attending the University of Toronto for a degree in Architectural History, focusing on Islamic Art and Architecture. I first worked at Canada’s largest women’s magazine, Chatelaine, in the Home Department. I helped out with photo shoots of homes, made DIY crafts for holiday stories and helped prop sets for TV segments. After my time at Chatelaine, I worked at another one of my favourite magazines, Canadian House & Home, where I worked on the digital side of things and prepared content for their website.

I started crafting for Muslim holidays because – well, I celebrate them. Editors liked my ideas and I’m thrilled to say that now we’re beginning to get some representation in mainstream media for them. Currently, I’m a freelance craft stylist for magazines. After I was introduced to the team at marthastewart.com with my Ramadan and Eid crafts last year, this past Easter I joined Martha Stewart Living’s team as a digital contributor.

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Gingerbread House from a Brown Paper Bag

TIP:

Manal Aman

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