Gingerbread House

Emboldened by my success making a giant gingerbread mushroom and not wanting my new skills to go to waste, I helped my neighbor and her 3 daughters (ages 12,10,8) to make a large gingerbread house.  I designed a four gable house so they would each have a large equal sized piece to decorate.  In their kitchen each of the girls rolled out and designed their front.  We baked them first so they would cool and they could decorate while I rolled out and baked the other pieces.

Here is the Mom and the 8yo's fronts (drying out on a cookie sheet, not baking them like this!):



And here are the 12 yo and 10 yo's fronts:



There is just a little bit of side that will show so I practiced my piping on them.  I designed it so the foot print of the house is a cross.



And here are two angles of the finished product.  I went over to take pictures last nite because the girls plan to demolish it and eat it on Christmas!





And yes those are gummy worms around some of the windows.  An innovation I never imagined.

Thanks for looking and enjoy the holidays!
Kathy

Gingerbread creation

"Deep in the Forest"   I made this for The Family Place's 13th annual Gingerbread Festival.  There was a peoples' choice vote and I was third place (adult catagory).  The big blue mushroom is about 15 inches or so tall, and the scene is all edible except for the base it sits on.  These photos are the morning before the festival before I transported it over.

I'm totally hooked!  I'm already planning next year's creation.  My friend Linda made the flowers and leaves which we dried on wax paper then I put them where I needed them later.

I got tired of making caps and stems for the smaller mushrroms and thought I'd try forming mushrrom shapes whole and cooking them.  Of course they collapsed as they cooked,  but they turned out to be perfect for the roof mushrooms.   There are little elf faces made out of marshmallows in the windows of the mushroom stem and hiding in the shrubery behind the little house.

I tried too make even the back side pretty, and I put some candy way up high under the cap.

This is the first thing I've ever made from gingerbread and royal icing.  By the time I got to the butterfly, I'd finally gotten good at the icing!  

Thanks for looking!

Vintage Pinecone Elves diy

I know its not Christmas, but I run out of time and don't make Christmas crafts at Christmas!  I love vintage pinecone elves.  Here are some of the ones that I put out at Christmas.  The ones in the bowers were on our Christmas tree when I was a kid (I have 6 total).  The little girl skier was my mother-in-law's.



Then there are these which are in bad condition but I still like them.   I think it would be nice to have a few dozen more so they could take over the Christmas tree.  A few years ago I gave my brother six in the bowers (like our childhood ones) that I bought on ebay.  Even as I was purchasing them the prices skyrocketed!



So I've been saving supplies for years to make my own.  I would want to make them anyway, but the high prices of the "real thing" is another incentive.   Many people have made very nice modern versions.  BUT I love the faces on my vintage ones and want more like them.



Love that face!  Some vintage ones have mean faces.  I prefer this face.
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned to a friend that I had all the supplies and have been wanting to make them for years.  She asked me to show her craft circle how and offered to come and help me figure it out a few days before.  So I was forced to do it!  The day before she came, I made some faces from sculpy and gathered all the materials together.  Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of what my friends made at the group.  I shared my supplies, including faces and sculpy mushrooms.

So here are the ones I made which are like the traditional ones...



And a close up:



And here is my favorite one that I made.  There is only one because I had only one dried squash top and one dried shelf mushroom.  I am going to make more next fall after I gather more tops and shrooms.  He is sitting on a pinecone like the vintage ones in the bowers.  I will ponder if I want to make some similar but in bowers.



View from back, you can see his mushroom cape and that he sits on a pinecone.  Body is an acorn.



Here he is with a vintage reindeer and a mushroom that I made a a while ago.



Thanks for looking!

I'm linking up to Vintage Inspiration Party at Beyond the Picket Fence, The Sunday Showcase by Stephanie Lynn, Block Party at Keeping it Simple Crafts, ShareYour Creativity Link Party at Its Overflowing and Lets Talk Vintage at Bella Rosa Antiques.  Be sure to check out the other fab projects!

Kathy