Forever Gingerbread House

December 15, 2011

Forever Gingerbread House

December 15, 2011

Forever Gingerbread House

 

 

 

I call this my FOREVER Gingerbread House because there is no actual food involved.  You can easily pack it away and use it year after year. 

I like crafts like this because 1) I can use it a few years in a row and 2) because I don’t like the idea of sticky sweet food being left out for days on end. I’ve never had bugs in my house except a few ants and I don’t want to tempt them to visit me.  Ya know what I mean?

Anyway, one of my favorite painting techniques when making faux food is to make my own textured paint.  Want to know what the big secret is?  Sand!  Yup, I mix my own paint colors and then add sand into the mix.  If you add just a bit of Mod Podge to the mix it makes the sand stick to the surface even better.  Just make sure that when you make a batch of textured paint that you make more than enough for the whole project. Being able to mix the exact same color twice would be a major miracle!

  

  Forever Gingerbread House

 

This is a large paper mache house.  I mixed the paint, sand and Mod Podge until I got it the color I wanted and then with a foam brush I painted it all over the house.  Inside and out.  Let dry over night.  I went back the next day and with a natural sponge and a couple of the paint colors I used in my mix I dabbed the sponge into the paint, wiped most of it off on a paper towel and then dabbed it onto the house in various places then went on to another color.  This gave my house some variation in color.  Like a real gingerbread cookie has. 

  

 Forever Gingerbread House


Now for the FUN part. My icing? Aleene’s True Snow. I put it in a regular frosting piping bag with a tip and decorate just like I would with frosting.  It’s a bit thinner and if you try to add color it becomes thinner yet but it sets up hard as a rock and looks like the real thing.

So I loaded a frosting bag with a medium sized hole tip and went to town decorating my house with snow frosting.  It also acts as the glue (just like with a real gingerbread house and royal icing) to hold the decorative elements on.

 

 Forever Gingerbread House

 

 

All of the candies I used are really ornaments for miniature trees.  I found a huge selection at Pat Catan’s, I cut the hanging loops off with a pair of wire cutters and used them like I would regular candy.

 

 Forever Gingerbread House

 

 

Yes, I realize that this costs a bit more than a real food gingerbread house but you can use it more than one year.  

I like making crafts that I’ll get a lot of use out of. Don’t you?

 

Vicki O'Dell

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  • Darlene Timmons December 7, 2012 at 10:14 am

    Vicki

    My Gingerbread house done and I would like to share my pictures with you.
    How can I do that?

    Also made a haunted house which I would like to share my pictures too.

    Right now I am starting on my fleece blankets, dresses out of t-shirts and then on to my Christmas house.

    Darlene
    Carrollton, TX

    • Vicki O'Dell December 7, 2012 at 12:46 pm

      Hi Darlene,

      You can send the photos to creativegoddess (at) vickiodell (dot) com.
      If you include a little note giving me permission to share them on my blog, I will. 🙂

      Can’t wait to see!! 🙂

      Vicki

  • Darlene Timmons November 15, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    Hi Vicki
    I love your ginger bread house made of mod podge and sand mixture.
    I want to try your technique on my gingerbread men paper mache ornaments.
    I use colored sand dark brown and mixed it with mod podge, but it looks to rough.
    Can you give me any tips, maybe I used to much sand?

    From one crafter to another

    • Vicki O'Dell November 15, 2012 at 1:51 pm

      Hi Darlene,

      I’m glad you wrote. If you look closely at my gingerbread house you can see that it is pretty rough. From a distance you really don’t see it but up close you can.
      Maybe a couple of coats of paint will make them look smoother? Also, the texture allowed the decorations to adhere better than if it was totally smooth.
      If you want your ornaments to be more smooth you might make them with an air dry clay or Creative Paper Clay and then paint them.

      That’s all I can come up with right off the top of my head. I hope it helps. If not, be sure to reply and we’ll try to brainstorm this problem away.

      Vicki

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