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Create a Life-Size Gingerbread House!
Published 11.28.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (18)
A Gingerbread House You Can Get Inside of!
By Brenda Ponnay
Making a gingerbread cookie house can be a bit of a PITA. (I don't mean a sandwich with hummus and sprouts...more like a Pain In The...well, you know where.) First there's the mixing with sticky molasses, then there's cutting perfectly square walls that bake into uneven trapezoids. Then there's the gloopy icing that runs all over the place and only holds when you don't want it to. Don't even get me started on trying to position everything with soup cans and cutting the gumdrops into slivers. Imagine me acting like a mouse stuck in a glue trap and you'll pretty much get an idea of how my gingerbread-cookie-house project went down.
Making a cardboard gingerbread house is definitely more my style. They don't call me the "cardboard whisperer" for nothing. It was really easy, actually. To start, you'll need two large boxes big enough to crawl into. You might also want a small box if you want to add a fancy window box for flowers. You'll need some paint in gingerbread-house colors (I opted for brown, white, pink and green) and a hot-glue gun to glue your candy pieces on. It's a cinch.
First you need to make a plan. We decided to keep it simple. For kicks we made a cardboard model. You don't need to do this but drawing out your ideas will definitely help and get you in the mood. We made a cardboard gingerbread man too. He might not be very tasty but he sure is cute!
Now it's time to cut the big boxes. Break out the box cutter and make sure all little fingers are safely out of the way.
I actually had two different sized big boxes. One was 20x20 and the other was 24x24. I used the larger one for the roof so it would have an overhang. I cut the bottom first. I cut a triangle out of two of the top opposite closure flaps to create a gable. The remaining flaps won't be big enough to reach the top of your gable triangle but that won't matter because you'll cover them with your roof piece.
Then I cut a rounded door (be sure to score the folding side so the door opens evenly) and two capital "I"-shaped windows on either side that opened into shutters. On the other side I made a small rounded window and cut a hole to stick my small box into for the window box.
I collapsed the larger box and cut it in half (along one long-ways fold) so it could sit like an "A" shape on top of the bottom box. Then I taped the two boxes together from inside the house with strong duct tape. I trimmed off the excess roof, leaving enough for an over-hang that I would later scallop for that "gingerbread" look. With the leftover half of the big box, I cut out shapes for round candies, some gum drops, a gingerbread man and a couple of candy canes. (I may have used some extra cardboard that we had lying around so if you run short, grab another box.)
Then we painted! This was the fun part. Who says two-year-olds are too little to paint with house paint? We did this at my friend's house and the whole family pitched in. It was great fun.
A paint roller is an excellent investment. It made painting the base brown color go quickly without any drips or streaking. I let the little ones fill in the edges (and pretty much anywhere they wanted) with smaller brushes.
After the house was painted brown and put safely away to dry, we broke out the other colors and had a blast painting the bigger-than-life candies. My daughter and her friend especially enjoyed adding the "sprinkles." A swirl here and a dab there and we were done! Then I chased all the kids away so I could add the white-paint icing detail and glue everything onto the house without anybody getting burned by the scary hot glue gun. I wanted to add yarn strings to the round lollypop shapes but my daughter did away with that idea with one guitar-string-like pluck. It didn't matter in the end. The round candies looked like peppermint star candies and turned out just fine. Almost good enough to eat!
Front view.
Side view. Oops, I lied. I didn't put the shutter windows on opposite sides. But it really doesn't matter. Just go with the flow. Kids will love it no matter how you much you stray from the plan.
The other side with the optional pop-out flower box.
And lastly, me, not fitting very well. Perhaps a height-restriction sign might be a nice addition.
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You may also enjoy:- Cardboard Structures you can decorate
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About this column
This is a year-round Holiday column. Kids love Holidays. As parents we have come to appreciate how Holidays seem to help structure our lives. Plus, any excuse to have fun sounds good to us!
We'll admit it, now that we're parents, we secretly look for Holidays to celebrate and between National, Secular, Unofficial and Bizarre Holidays, we think there are enough days out there to keep us inspired every week.
This column will be a place where you can get inspiration for how to enjoy time with your kids. Crafting projects and ideas will be posted on Thursdays by our brilliant contributors (see below). Other fun ideas will be posted here throughout the week as the inspiration hits us!
About our Craft Contributors
Ellen Luckett Baker is the author of the long thread, a blog about handmade goods. She has always enjoyed making things, but the flexibility of staying at home with her two daughters along with the creative inspiration they provide has led her to craft on a daily basis. Combining her love of graphic design and sewing, she has created an Etsy shop selling machine embroidery designs and sewing patterns.
Ellen lives in Atlanta with her husband and two young daughters. She holds a B.A. in Art History and a Master's of Public Administration with a focus in Non-Profit Management.
Cindy Hopper was fortunate to be raised in a family who appreciated the arts. This background led to a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education. With a keen eye for design and color, Cindy has continued her love of art and is now passing her creative skills on to her three children. Cindy's family and friends are the beneficiaries of her passion for fun and meaningful creative projects. Cindy's personal blog, Skip to My Lou, has taken her love of a project to new levels. Postings keep the family busy -– from testing new recipes for holiday treats to designing and building floats for a neighborhood parade to making fabric rolls to hold crayons to creating themed parties. Cindy seems to have an unending supply of ideas for gifts, parties and rainy days.
Marie LeBaron is a 30 something stay at home mom in Utah. Before life as a mother, she graduated with a teaching degree in Early Childhood & Elementary Education, after which she taught four years of Kindergarten. After her first child was born, she decided to read books and sing silly songs at home. She misses the classroom, but she now gets to bring the fun and learning into her home and ours. You’ll see her kids a lot in these projects as they are her guinea pigs and for whom she's creative. You can follow more of her projects at her personal blog Make and Takes.
Brenda Ponnay is a stealthy secret agent who juggles parenthood to her adorable daughter by day and freelance graphic design by night. Whether it's painting, baking, drawing, making castles out of card board boxes or just doing the laundry with flair, Brenda Ponnay has finally discovered (at the ripe old age of thirty-six) that what really makes her happy is being creative every single day.
Brenda lives in Southern California with her husband, daughter, three cats and thirty-seven pet birds. You can read about all her crazy adventures on her personal blog: Secret Agent Josephine.
Disclaimer
This column is only for entertainment purposes. Any recommendations or information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for advice by a trained professional. For a full statement of our site policies, please click here.
Comments (18):
anne said:
Oh my word!! I love this!! Can't wait until my Bug is big enough for a fun project like this! :)
Posted on November 28, 2008 10:50
sock mom said:
you have outdone yourself, Brenda! You look like Alice outgrowing the house in the last photo :-)
Posted on November 28, 2008 11:37
Pictou said:
Now I feel guilty for sending three huge Amazon boxes to the recycler! Oh. I remember why, I don't have any little ones. :(
Posted on November 28, 2008 12:16
bethany said:
Love it! If this gets me out of making the gooey-sticky kind, which they still want, I'll be ecstatic :). I'd MUCH rather deal with stepping around cardboard in our small apt. than dealing with sugar-hyped up boys in that same small space.
Posted on November 28, 2008 12:28
Lori said:
ha!! this is awesome! it reminds me of the little temporary house they used to set up on the courthouse lawn for Santa Claus. :^)
Posted on November 28, 2008 12:42
Mrs. Wilson said:
Oh my goodness. That looks like SO much fun. The next time we get some big boxes, I'm definitely doing that. Except it would be so much better in California heat!!
Your creativity never ceases to amaze me.
Posted on November 28, 2008 12:43
nadine AKA scarbiedoll said:
Brenda you are my hero. If only the weather in Toronto could facilitate this project, I might actually consider it. You are mega talented.
Posted on November 28, 2008 14:30
Susan said:
Thank you so much..too cool..I'm a nurse looking for a creative ginger bread house for work..This is very "do able"!!!
Merry Christmas!!
Posted on November 29, 2008 10:06
CaraM - TheHouseholdHelper said:
oh this is so darn cute and it looks like you had fun!
Thanks for the idea.
Posted on November 29, 2008 13:25
Kim said:
What a great idea. My daughter would have so much fun. Thanks for sharing this idea.
Posted on November 29, 2008 14:51
Neil said:
SAJ -- sooo cool! I want you as my new Mom.
Posted on November 29, 2008 15:44
lesly k said:
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOU GREAT IDEA.....
FROM NEW YORK
Posted on November 30, 2008 12:02
Allison Wonder said:
Wow- what a great project! The weather's too wet here to do this outside, but maybe we'll do an un-painted version in the basement and paint it later.
I knew I saved those moving boxes for something! :D
Posted on December 5, 2008 08:54
Amber said:
This is so awsome.I have been looking all night for a cool gingerbread house idea for my 8 year old daughters school project,think we found one..thankx so much.
Amber and Taylor
Posted on December 10, 2008 00:52
julia said:
Hi- look for this to be featured tomorrow on Ohdeedoh at 11 am.
Thanks! Julia
Posted on December 14, 2008 16:48
Trish, Dublin, Ireland said:
Fantastic project, can't wait to get stuck in when the weather improves - my three year old will love it - and I think I will too! :)
Posted on February 27, 2009 16:30
ulalia said:
we've been looking all over for ideas, I love what you've done! it's simple , inexpensive and creative...love it!
all the way from HAWAII, aloha and mahalo!
Posted on November 17, 2009 20:55
Jen said:
This is great! I googled cardboard gingerbread house to research ideas for my teen group for our December meeting. They're going to love this!
Jen
Boston, MA
Posted on December 1, 2009 15:47