Gingerbread houses

[monkeyboy]

So we are having a contest.

Standard store bought kit for everyone (typical house).


How to make it creative?

 

[merrily]

You need to add a lot more candy and edible items. Not enough variety in the kit in my opinion.

 

[tchrrx]

http://www.ehow.com/how_4609581_nightmare-before-christmas-gingerbread-house.html


http://www.gingerbread-house-heaven.com/gingerbread-house-decorating-ideas.html

 

[dislaney]

I buy lots of extra candy usually. Your kind of limited with what is in the kit.

As a matter of fact, my kids decorated the gingerbread house the other day. I usually buy lots of extra candy -that I think will look good on it. Well for some reason I didn't buy as much as usual and boy were they disappointed. They told me they don't really care what it ends up looking like they were more interested in eating it! Who knew? I always thought the idea was to have a cute house?!

 

[dis-happy]

Get a disposable pastry bag and a couple of tips (round no. 3, round no. 5 and a star tip, no. 15 or 17 and a coupler so you can switch them off). It makes a world of difference to have the control of the pastry bag when decorating with the icing!!!

 

[monkeyboy]

Let me clarify
I "think: everyone will just bling it up.

I want ideas for something different.

95% must be edible

 

[dis-happy]

Pick a theme that is meaningful to you. I've done them for horselovers, teachers, tennis players, etc. and incorporated things into the theme and onto and around the house. For a train lover I managed to put a dollar store children's train set around the house (the plastic track went around the house and the wind-up train went around on the track).

Also, get something nice to use as your base---a pretty Christmas plate or a sturdy piece of cardboard wrapped in festive Christmas paper.

Tootsie rolls (the midgies) are great for chimneys, log piles and fencing (stand it up and use licorace or royal icing in streams between the tootsie roll fence posts).

Colored sugar crystals look nice sprinkled over the whole thing.

 

[Imzadi]

Check out our fellow DIS resident, Gingerbread House maker. She came in THIRD in the National competiton with this house. It all had to do with her creating a theme for her house.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2568974

Here are her tips in another thread, telling someone some of the materials she uses. Maybe you can add on an addition or garage to your house.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2585947

 

[monkeyboy]

Check out our fellow DIS resident, Gingerbread House maker. She came in THIRD in the National competiton with this house. It all had to do with her creating a theme for her house.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2568974

Here are her tips in another thread, telling someone some of the materials she uses. Maybe you can add on an addition or garage to your house.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2585947

Yeah......


Out of my skill level. I was thinking of making a barn

 

[Imzadi]

Yeah......


Out of my skill level. I was thinking of making a barn

Then go with that theme. Make a a trough, hay bales, cow poo, an rickety, sagging fence.

 

[monkeyboy]

cow poo, an rickety, sagging fence.

sounds like my ex

 

[merrily]

We made a beach house this year. Lawn chairs made from fruit striped gum, sand made from crushes Graham cracker, surf boards palm tree made of tootsie rolls and gum. Looks awesome.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Yeah......


Out of my skill level. I was thinking of making a barn

I have a friend that made a surf shack last year. Now it was all from scratch, but using a kit, if you made it diorama style and then use the spare roof piece to make some accessories....

She used pretzel sticks for the corner posts, sugar wafer cookies to cover the sides. I can't figure out the roof. It was like shredded wheat, but lighter. They even made surfboards and I think that they used Fondant on those.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Fruit roll-ups make cool stained glass windows and wafer cookies make really good looking fences but if you are patient you could put small pretzel sticks in rows on wax paper connected by Hershey kisses and make horse fences out of them. Shredded wheat would make some really nice looking hay. Ground up oreo could make a nice garden with gummy worms in the mix. Shredded coconut dyed green makes good grass. If you use a cookie sheet as a base you can really spread it out

I do 3 a year with the kids, one for Halloween, one for Christmas and one for Easter. The kids picked out Christmas trees instead this year, we just did them tonight with my niece