Gingerbread Chewie Cookie Decoration

The first movie I ever saw in a theater was STAR WARS: Episode IV A New Hope back in 1977. Of course, to old timers like me, the movie is just called Star Wars. Anyway, big fan. So, about a week ago, I was about to make a large Gingerbread Man out of insulation foam board for my outside Christmas decorations. Then, my wife mentioned she had purchased tickets to see Rogue One and something clicked and I thought... Chewbacca! I looked on Instructables and didn't see any decorations like what I was contemplating, but did find a real cookie recipe by greenyouse back in 2011: https://www.instructables.com/id/Wookie-Cookies/ With a little re-imagining, I knew I could bring the Wookiee Cookie back for 2016. Just don't try to eat mine. It probably tastes like Bantha fodder.

This project is pretty simple. I chose to use foam for this project because, well, I'm Freakyfoam, but this project could be done with wood, construction paper or some other crafty material. I can see this being a good project for young Jedi padawans who want to make a smaller version using construction paper.

For the project seen, you'll need:

Insulation Foam Board

Brown Paint

Lighter Brown Paint

Even Lighter Brown Paint

Black Paint

White Paint

Glue

Knife or other tool to cut the shapes

Step 1: Basic Shapes

I started by drawing the basic shape of a gingerbread man onto the foam. Note the head is kinda tall and gumdrop shaped. I used a hot knife to cut the body out, but this project can be easily done with a regular knife (it's just more of a mess).

Next, draw and cut all the other shapes from the foam:

Eyes, nose, mouth, squiggles of "frosting" for the neck/arms/legs, bandoleer to go across Chewie's chest, and small circles to complete the look of the bandoleer. Since the foam I was using was 1 inch thick, all of these pieces were sliced into 1/4 inch thick pieces.

Step 2: Painting

As with all foam projects, know that spray paint will destroy foam. This project can be painted with acrylic paint, latex paint, etc. If you want to use spray paint, you need to coat the foam with something else first to protect it.

I was lucky enough to win a gift certificate and got some Styroplast from Hot Wire Foam Factory. I used it for this project to add durability (it cures into a hard plastic-like coating). I glued the bandoleer strap to the body then coated all pieces with Styroplast. Once dry, I sprayed the entire body with brown spray paint. After drying, I used dark brown acrylic paint on the bandoleer strap. As you can see, the eyes and nose were painted with black acrylic, the "frosting" squiggles were painted with a tan acrylic, and the mouth and bandoleer accessories were painted white.

Once dry, I simply used some glue to attach all the pieces.

Done!

Have fun!