Distressed Gingerbread Man Cat Toys

Today we’re going to make some very funny, very distressed gingerbread men cat toys out of felt!

I love, love, love the whole gingerbread with a bite missing thing (which is why I made a Christmas stocking with the theme). It’s funny because they always looks surprised and I, like the rest of the females in my line, think that pain (when occurring to someone else) is hysterical.

Here is an example: My sister falls out of Momma’s Bronco when we are kids. But she doesn’t just fall… she gets wrapped up in the seatbelt at the same time and is lying on the driveway. She’s all sorts of tangled in a seat-belt that appears to be 100 feet long. My mother and I laugh our faces off. Then we all proceed to the emergency room where my sister was fitted with a cast for a broken arm.

Check out that cute distended belly chock full of kitty crack.

Here is another example: Just this fall, when visiting my sister we got really, really excited because there was a fair in town. Now I don’t ride the rides and I can’t eat any of the food, but I still love itty bitty parking lot fairs with smelly carnies (apologies to any non-smelly carnies – the ones that hit up our town are smelly, though).

We talk my dad into taking us and the boys that night AND taking us to the casino for lunch. Talk about a double score. I, being very excited and dorky, start doing the Carlton and elbow my mom in the eye. Hard..and it promptly starts to swell. My father runs to my mother to see if she is okay, but my sister and I can’t stop laughing, in spite of the fact that I feel so, so awful. Not sure what I mean by the Carlton? Now you do.

Does it make us jerks? Probably, but apparently the attitude is genetic.

I’m also the type of person who gifts Christmas presents to my pets. This is a time honored tradition since I was a kid. So I decided to make some little catnip filled gingerbread men. And to make them even more awesome, I wanted them to look really, really upset. I mimicked the design of the Distressed Gingerbread Man stocking pattern I made a while back ago but considerably tinier.

For this project you will need:

• Felt in tan and other colors
• Rick rack (optional)
• Matching embroidery thread & a needle
• Catnip
• Free printable template (used voodoo pincushion pattern here)
• Disappearing ink fabric marking pen

Print your pattern and trace onto felt and take a chunk out as you see fit. Mine are missing part of the head and part of the leg. You can also take a bite out of their torso, an arm…

Double your felt and cut out two.

Next decorate the top piece of felt as you please. Just please don’t use beads, buttons, or other small things that can get lodged into kitty’s throat. Use your embroidery thread to tack your embellishments on.

Use a blanket stitch to close up your decorated front and plain back felt together. Leave a decent sized opening to use to fill with catnip.

Now it’s time to fill with catnip. This was a much, much bigger problem than I had anticipated for two reasons. 1: I didn’t leave the openings large enough to easily accommodate inserting the catnip. 2: I failed to remove my 4 cats from the room prior and trying to remove them while they are “nipping out” is practically dangerous.

Here is a pic of mar “nipping out” up close and personal. This is one of my very favorite pics ever. Now, back to the tutorial.

I made a funnel out of paper and tape, filled it with catnip wound up using things to shove it through. In the long run, a fine crochet hook worked the best.

After filling use your thread and continue to blanket stitch closed.

Tie your string off securely and these suckers are ready to make your kitties totally crazed.

Love your kitties and always have them spayed or neutered. See you tomorrow for some sparkly Christmas tree ornaments!