Gingerbread Wreath Using Dollar Tree Houses and Bottlebrush Trees

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I know, I know, it’s early for Christmas decor but, I had to post now because the supplies will be sold out if I waited. I get so frustrated when I see a great idea and it sells out immediately.

The Inspiration

I was inspired by the many house wreaths I saw on Pinterest and I noticed most of them mentioned an Anthropology wreath inspired them. They were all very nice  but I love gingerbread and so I had something else in mind. I had found these ornaments at Dollar Tree and grabbed them thinking they were cute but, not sure what I was going to do with them.
I loved, loved how my gingerbread wreath looked and it was pretty easy considering how beautiful it turned out. No one would ever guess that most of it is from Dollar Tree.

Supplies for Gingerbread Wreath

For supplies you need a wreath, I picked this one at Hobby Lobby for 50% off so I believe it was $8.00. It is a 20 inch size and not lighted.
I got 6 ornaments from Dollar tree. These are ornaments, not the village houses.

These are not as deep as the village houses so they are perfect for the wreath.
Next you will need bottle brush trees. They have tons of them so if you wanted something brighter with your gingerbread houses, pink or red and white would be cute. I went for a more muted look but, you do you. All my houses and trees came from Dollar Tree.
I also got white acrylic paint and a foam brush to flock my wreath, glue gun and glue sticks.
To paint the houses I got a can of Rust-Oleum Warm Caramel  in satin finish. It’s a perfect gingerbread color.
And finally, puffy paint. I stayed with all white but it comes in lots of colors if you want a more colorful wreath.

Dollar Tree Ornaments for Gingerbread Houses

To start out I carefully removed the wreaths. Honestly, they popped off pretty easily and didn’t leave any residue. I also cut off the piece on the top that holds the hanger. It was easy using my kitchen scissors.

I used my Cricut spatula to remove the wreaths but you could just pull them off. I was careful because I wanted to save them for another project with my grands.

Finally it’s time to spray paint!

I love the Rust-Oleum spray paint Warm Caramel satin for my gingerbread color. It’s like a cozy, warm cookie color. This is a high quality paint that is good on plastic and it covered those bold colors with one coat.

I let these dry overnight so they would be completely dry when I “iced”

Inexpensive Hobby Lobby Wreath for the Win!

I wanted to get the wreath ready now so I fluffed it and was pleasantly surprised that even though it was very inexpensive, it was a beautiful full wreath. Thank you Hobby Lobby!  After that I just wanted a little bit of flocking. I’m not a fan of the spray. I just get white acrylic paint, a foam brush and dab where I want snow. For this I used Apple Barrel paint.  It’s super easy and doesn’t make a mess. It also looks great!

Who Doesn’t  Love Gingerbread?

Now comes the fun. I was a little nervous about this part but, I kept reminding myself I have been decorating gingerbread cookies for over 50 years. I also checked Pinterest for ideas then just started decorating my houses.




Obviously I’m not great at icing but I just had fun with it. I let them completely dry before I handled them.

To get the trees ready I removed the stands right at the base of the trees. Wire cutters would work great for this. I just bent them back and forth until they broke off.

Now everything is ready! Wreath is dry, houses are dry and it’s time to assemble.

Here I’m just trying to process how I’m going to place everything on the wreath. I definitely recommend this before you start to glue everything on.

This is it! After playing with it for a few minutes I decided to add some trees to the middle and that was the look I wanted.

I started with the trees in the center. I used a lot of Gorilla hot glue to make sure everything was sturdy. Then I did the top trees, glued them down well and placed the church on top. Doing it in this order made it easy for me to lay out the rest of the houses.

I placed the houses out and started gluing. I used lots of glue because I wanted everything to stay in place. I usually wire the decor on my wreaths but I don’t plan on changing this out. I’ve been decorating my kitchen in gingerbread for over 40 years and don’t plan on changing now.

 As you can see. I didn’t paint the backs. I did paint the bottoms because you will see that.

Completed Gingerbread Wreath

Here it is and I couldn’t be happier. My daughter has already asked me to make her one.
Thank you for stoping by. If you decide to try to make this wreath, I would love to see your version and if you enjoy my posts please take a minute to click on the follow button.

Wishing you happy crafting and lots of Sunny Days!