Gingerbread Fun

Our local library was handing out gingerbread houses to be decorated and judged.  My kids jumped right on it because there were great prizes.  I stayed out of the way (besides helping them locate additional supplies).  One of the rules was that all the pieces in the kit must be used.  This turned out to be a tricky requirement.  I was amazed at their creative ideas and how well they were able to execute them.  Delaney decided on a beach theme for her house.  She was able to transform the peppermints into coconuts and bikini tops.  I  think she did a fabulous job.

Sydney waivered on what she wanted to do, but then settled on a train theme.  She was going more toward Polar Express.  She put a lot of time into making the train cars and the tracks.  She had to cut out all the little dots and squares the covered the cars.  I thought it was a great idea to use the peppermints at wheels.

And the snow became the smokestack.

Gavin went to town decorating his house, and he settled on a sweet theme.  I just love how the ice cream cone turned out.  At the last minute he came up with the idea of putting the gingerbread man in the cocoa pond.  I was really impressed by this idea. 

After the kids were all putting so much time and effort into their houses, I decided I better do one.  I spent the first the first week debating on how I wanted to decorate mine.  Anyone that knows me knows that I do better with a deadline.  The first idea I came up with was straws for the roof.  After that, the creativity started flowing.  Long ago quilt group did a swap with 1000 pyramids.  I did all the cutting with my Accucut.  In the center of the die was this beautiful little hexagon that was essentially a little piece of everyone in my quilt group.  How could I throw away these beauties?  What on Earth would I ever do with 10,000 or so of these?  They have been aging in a container in my sewing room for over a year.  I devised a plan!  I was going to have a house with a cobblestone path.  The next thought was to have one side of the house be stone.  My girls quickly squashed this idea and said the whole house needed to be covered.  The fabric for the base was a piece of leftover backing.  The tree is made from a scrap of fabric gifted to me and I added light brite pegs for lights.  It was a very fun project but I spent way too much time on it when I should have been doing other things.  It was quite time consuming to line up all the little hexagons perfectly.  I learned a few things about myself along the way. 

I had lots of pieces that I had to use. I didn't want windows in my house, so I used these pieces as the gate. I didn't want to pay the price for modge podge, so I used equal parts of Elmer's glue and water. I applied with a brush and put several coats over the fabrics. I selected several selvages from my basket and cut just the dot portions. I sewed them together to make the garland. The gingerbread man was cut with my Sizzix, but the rest of the foam pieces came in my kit.

 Eleanor do you see anything special about this window??  There is that dreaded piece of fabric that started your title as cheetah girl!!!  It just fell out of the container and asked to be put on the house.  I picked a special spot under the window.