Gingerbread house holiday card holder

Last year as I was putting away our Christmas decor, I realized that the Christmas card holder, the one that my Mom had made from felt yearrrrs ago was on it’s last leg. SOOOO as every good maker says “I CAN MAKE ONE” and so I set out to make a brand new Christmas card holder to replace the one that had lived in our house and our walls every holiday for the past 40ish years! 🙂

SOOOOOO, today I give to you my version of a felt gingerbread holiday card holder that can hold your memories and well wishes that get sent to you every holiday season! 🙂 Below is my full pattern along with all the tips and tricks to make one of your very own! 🙂

MATERIALS:

• Brown “gingerbread” color felt – 2 pieces about 25” x 10” and any additional for accessories or details you want to add
• Background felt (I have a salmon/pink color shown) – 2 pieces about 30” x 11”
• Any additional white, brown, green or other colors to decorate your gingerbread house
• Sharp scissors or a rotary cutter
• A needle and hand sewing thread (optional if you are gluing your whole project together)
• Some gingerbread color embroidery floss or cotton thread (optional, esp if glueing)
• Glue – I chose felt glue (my fave is Aleene’s Felt + Foam) but hot glue could work too or any other of your fave fabric adhesive
• A wooden dowel – mine was 3/4” thick and about 16” long
• Some yarn, string or ribbon for hanging
• PDF pattern (DOWNLOAD HERE)

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Cut out all of your bigger pieces according to the PDF pattern

A few notes on cutting since the PDF is just a paper pattern template:

• You will want to cut out each of the 3 card holding sections first from your brown gingerbread fabric
• Then you will want to cut out one big piece that is about 24” x 8” for the “backside” of your gingerbread house. Your 3 card holding sessions will go on top of these 
• I also chose to cut out to top roof line and roof separately from the top section (not necessary, but I liked the dimension that this gave the finished card holder. 

After you’ve cut out the bigger PDF pattern pieces, you are going to cut out your background and the 3 dowel holders at top. 

1. Cut TWO pieces of felt for the background at least 26” x 11” (you can choose to go bigger if you want more background around your gingerbread

2. Then cut out 3 pieces of the same color background felt that are 2” wide by about 10” long, then fold them in half. These are going to be what you thread the dowel through at the top of the cardholder to hang it

2. Cut out all of your details and sew/glue on

You will use your pattern to cut out the details for your gingerbread house. Feel free to add or change anything to make this more personal to your holiday home! 

I chose to work section by section – cutting, glue basting and stitching in place (I used the Aleene’s Felt and Foam glue for basting my little pieces in place and then hand stitching in place). But you can also choose to simply glue things in place without stitching. 

When all of your details are finished and either glued/stitched in place, you will start assembling the gingerbread house onto your background!

3. Assemble the gingerbread house

Start by laying all of your pieces together so that everything fits how you want it, and then pin each of the 3 card holder sections in place on the house. I chose to do a blanket stitch to hold these sections in place around the 3 sides (left, right and bottom, leaving the top open to stick cards into). Be sure to anchor your stitches well so that in the hustle and bustle of pulling out and place cards in, the pockets remain secure. 

4. Attach your house to the background. 

Do this by either hand stitching, machine stitching or glueing in place. Be sure that the bottom of your gingerbread house is flush with the bottom of your background before attaching it all together. 

5. Add loop hangers

Fold your 3 loop hangers in half (that you cut out in step 1). You will “insert” these between the 2 background layers evenly across the top short portion of the background (be sure that they are both evenly spaced out horizontally AND are even with how they will hang when the dowel is inserted so that the card holder isn’t crocked). Stitch in place around the outer edge (either using your sewing machine or hand stitching a blanket stitch). Be sure to “catch” the inserted loops at the top so that they are nice and secure to the background of the card holder. 

6. Add your dowel

Insert your dowel through the top loops. Then with some string, thread or ribbon, tie around both edges of the dowel to create a hanger for your card holder. 

Then add this to your holiday decor and cherish all of those cards you receive in the mail every holiday season! 🙂