Finish out your Christmas decorating by making a gingerbread house! It looks good enough to eat -- but it's really made from modeling clay and puff paint. :D
You'll also need some beads and stickers, for decorations.
Start by rolling out the clay, and cutting out house shapes. For a simple house, you'll want two fronts, two sides and two roof pieces. This house is about 2" square at the base, and 3" tall at the point of the roof. (It helps to make templates out of cardboard first, and check the fit and size of your pieces!)
Bake the pieces, following the directions on the package.
To make the base for your house, cover a small square of cardboard with foil.
Then, hot-glue your house pieces onto the foil-covered base. Be sure to glue the pieces to each other, as well!
Get the front, back, and two sides glued down before adding the two roof pieces. It's ok if you have little gaps -- you can fill those in with puff paint in the next step.
Go over all your hot-glued seams with white puff paint, to make it look like the house is held together with icing.
If you want, you can go ahead and add "icing" decorations at this point -- or, if you're like me and don't trust yourself around wet puff paint, let it dry for a couple hours.
Draw on an 'icing' door and some windows; then decorate the roof. Here's a closeup of the roof pattern I did -- there are lots of other awesome patterns too, so get creative...
Once all that is dry, start landscaping! Hot-glue beads down all around the cardboard base to make 'plants'.
As you are landscaping, it's also a great time to add stickers to the house itself. See if you can't find some that look like your favorite candy!
Once you're done landscaping, draw on a puff-paint path, and add a final drizzle of puff paint to look like snow.
Set it in a safe place overnight, to give the puff paint a chance to harden up.
Have fun, and be sure to let us know in the comments if you make this!
For Pixie Faire,
Melinda
11 Comments
Ali Dunk
January 11, 2017
Anyone have suggestions on the specific brand stickers to use?
Judy
December 21, 2016
This is awesome. Thank you for sharing this tutorial. Where’s it been hiding? Looks like it’s been here 3 years already. I wish I’d seen this earlier in the season, but there’s really no rule against making gingerbread houses in January, right? Besides, looks like it might just last a bit to enjoy next Christmas, and the next….
Clarissa
December 20, 2016
Cute idea!
I’ve made real gingerbread houses (and will do one this year for the grands). Since my hands tend to be a little shaky, I do the decorating before putting the pieces together.
helen34
December 16, 2016
qui peut me dire ou trouver cette peinture feuillete
Mary
December 16, 2016
Thinking about what sizes the template pieces are———-just noted, you can count the squares of the cutting board the pieces lie on. My guess is the sides are 3"high x 4"wide—-etc
Reina
December 16, 2016
It’s beautifull and easy!!!!
Pat
November 17, 2016
Great love it! Will try it soon! Thanks!
Darrence
January 03, 2015
That’s an inentliglet answer to a difficult question xxx
Penny T.
November 28, 2014
I had hoped that you would attach the actual pattern pieces or at least given the dimensions for the walls, and roof when you turned this into Freebie Friday pdf and video. It would have made the tutorial a bit more user friendly.
Cathrine
June 29, 2014
Love it !!!
Annette
May 16, 2014
This looks so easy and so cute! I have go to try this one, and soon, even if Summer is on the horizon. Nothing like planning ahead! TFS! Annette
Ali Dunk
January 11, 2017
Anyone have suggestions on the specific brand stickers to use?