Sunday, January 5, 2014

Gingerbread Log Cabin


I wish I could sneak off to the mountains and stay in a cabin like this!  Mason and Brooke helped build this little gingerbread cabin.
The 'house' is a pre-built one from Target.  My son cut the 'windows' with a small saw used for carving pumpkins.
 The 'logs' are cinnamon sticks.  I used sharp garden clippers to cut them to size.  The icing came with the pre-built, standard gingerbread house.
 The English serving tray holds the display and allows it to be portable.  I used it as a centerpiece for a cookie exchange at my daughter's school, and then as a display in my kitchen.  The 'snow' on the ground is a bag of snow (plastic) purchased from Hobby Lobby.  If you want to stick to the rules and use all food, baby rice cereal works nicely with some sparkly sprinkles added.
The 'pathway' is Big Red gum cut into pieces and placed in a herringbone pattern.  The 'threshold' stone is a cinnamon and sugar covered pecan.  The 'greenery' is rosemary and the heart 'door knob' came from a jar of sprinkles.  The door is a graham cracker.
The thatch roof is made of mini-Triscuits.
The 'stone' fireplace is made from a Target brand of cinnamon and sugar covered pecans and almonds.  (I don't think they are available year round.)  They work great as 'stones' and are so delicious, too!

The 'smoke' is angel hair snow.  I used cotton candy to swirl upward for the cookie party display, but it disintegrated quickly from moisture in the air.  (Cotton candy is available during the holidays in a tub at Wal-Mart.)  The angel hair is malleable and works great!  Wrap it around a pencil to create a swirl.
I used small pretzel sticks to make the fence and medium size pretzel sticks for the 'fire logs' stacked near the cabin.  The 'antlers' are broken pieces from small knot pretzels.
I found the Woody station wagon at Eckerd drug store years ago and attached the small bottle brush tree.  (The wrapping paper came from Target and is my favorite. I bought every roll at our local store!)
We worked on this over several days.  My son and I had planned to enter the local town contest; however, we missed the admission deadline.  Also, I believe the rules are that everything has to be made of food.  The car and the bottle brush trees would have to go, but for our purposes, they add such character!

This is the stone 'cottage' we made years ago.  Several of you inquired about the 'base' of this house.  It was a pre-built gingerbread house, as well.

My son loves to build, so this is a great project he and I can do together.  I wonder what we will come up with next year.  If I could actually bake the base gingerbread house, it would open our possibilities!

I will be posting a bit more Christmas 2013 soon!



Thank you for stopping by and have a great New Year!
 
Pin It Now!

12 comments :

Sunflowers With Smiles said...

Lovely....our family used to have a gingerbready contest holiday party, it was blast.

Happy New Year!

Kate said...

I love both of them - such originality and imagination!

It's me said...

O so lovely !!!!...have a nice week love Ria...x !

Carrie said...

I love this! I am so going to do this next Christmas. Thanks for the inspiration. So adorable!

Sue said...

Your house is darling - every detail is just right. I have seen some with the big pretzels as logs - maybe for next year?
Happy 2014!

Holly said...

this is the CuTesT I've ever seen!! Love everything about it, but most of all the "tradition" you've created with your son. Such talent!

Kelly said...

I love it! You guys are so creative with what you came up with for the siding, chimney smoke and walkway etc. Love the rustic cabin look. I haven't seen one like that before. I like how everything you did was right to scale as well. The trees are bigger than the house and the car is smaller than the house. It looks realistic!

Sarah said...

Christie, this is adorable! I've shared this link with my sister to do this project with her grands. I'm also pinning it so I remember this darling idea. Love the woodsy scene.
Happy New Year!

Pat@Life At Lydias House said...

What a creation! It is beautiful and as are the memories you are making!

Anonymous said...

LOVE Love LoVe it! What an awesome idea... looks like a lot of fun ♥

tawn said...

This is TOO cute. Your imagination is wonderful. I would have never thought to use Big Red gum for the walkway. I am going to pin this as well. My grandson is only 15 mos. old, but what a wonderful project for his and my future celebration together.

Anne Campbell said...

Your house is adorable and so creative. Thanks for sharing your process. My boys can't wait to make one like it.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...