Gingerbread House Ornament

This post is more to share an idea than a finished product. Because the finished product didn't turn out too great...but I still like the idea!

Having made gingerbread men ornaments I thought a gingerbread house ornament would be fun, and you know how I like making miniature buildings.

I made some simple houses out of card and put a loop of gold thread between the roof so that they could hang.

I painted the houses with acrylic paint. The colour may have been the first mistake. It looks maybe a bit too orange for gingerbread.

For the icing/frosting detail I wanted something three-dimensional to replicate the real stuff.

I found this big tube of filler for 99p and thought it might be perfect for the job.

My Mum made me a piping bag out of greaseproof paper and I squeeze some of the filler in.

The piping in this photo isn't too bad, but other areas were a hot mess.

My piping skills aren't that bad - see last years actual gingerbread house - but the filler is thicker than icing and doesn't flow as well.

 This is what I ended up with.

I think the cardboard is too flat/lacking texture compared the filler which is maybe too big for the scale of the houses.

Any ideas for alternative ways to do this?

Or any other uses for the filler now that I have a whole tube of it?

The Degree Show

The degree show opened earlier this week and we had the private view on Tuesday.

To see how I made the tree piece click here and here.

And these are the deets for the house; walls, bricks, interior, paving, porch, appliances, front bedroom, rubbish bin, roof, back bedroom, details

Our business cards are all kept together in these specially made pigeon holes.

Here's Natalie modelling mine.

My work seems to be getting a fair bit of attention. I love seeing people walk around the entire house and peer into each window.

And so that you guys don't feel left out, here's a video showing my work so you can view it as if you're there!

(If you're one of my friends or family that are coming to see the show, don't watch this video. Spoilers people!)

The other artist who have work in this room are Clare Mills, Andy Reeve, Jon Jensen, and Will Reid.

Andy has already sold two of his piece. One of them was to John Hurt.

You know, famous actor John Hurt. He's the new provost for our university.

When he looked round he didn't seem to interest by my work, as he was too busy figuring out which of Andy's he was going to buy (the most expensive!).

But his wife had a good look at my work!

If you happen to be in Norwich the degree show is on until Tuesday 3rd July.

House progress: It's all in the details

All that's left to show you of my model house are the finishing touches.

Like the scattered leaves (mixed herbs) around the drain pipes.

The pink umbrella in the porch.

The slate house number and the doormat.

The concrete passageway down the side of the house.

Note the handy mirror in the background that makes the house look like it's part of a neighbourhood.

Here's hoping the examiners like what I've made.

House progress: Roof

The house has a roof!

Took long enough!

The roof panels start out like this.

Lots of 1x1cm square piece of card.

I got very excited the other day when my friend lent me a War-gaming making book and they'd used the same method for roof tiles. It means I'm doing it right.

Each roof tile is then glued to a piece of mount board which I measured out horizontal lines on.

That's the part that took a long time.

For example, when working on one panel I got through the last Harry Potter film, A Town Called Panic, an episode of The Voice and an episode of Casualty.

But, in my defence, A Town Called Panic has subtitles so I had to keep stopping to read. 

Once all the titles were stuck I went over them with chalk and charcoal to make them look weathered and added some 'moss'.

I made guttering and drainpipes out of drinking straws.

Cutting straws so that they're straight is hard, so just don't look too closely.

They really help the piece look like a proper house.

I also made lead flashing out of paper that I painted a silvery grey.

I didn't know that it was called lead flashing before this, so it's nice to see that I'm learning something.

House progress: Rubbish bin

For the narrative side of my house I had to make a rubbish bin.

For this I had to be the crazy girl in the street taking photos of her own wheelie bins.

The whole thing is made of paper and card. Oh and a paper clip may have been involved.

The bin has been knocked over (the tyre marks in the background may have had something to do with it) and all the rubbish bags are spilling out.

I loved making this bin.

Is that weird? It's like when I made this toaster.

It was nice to make one small object from beginning to end in one sitting, and try really hard to make it really detailed.

I love it so much I'm tempted to exhibit it on it's own for the degree show!

Kidding. I haven't spent three months making the rest of the house for nothing.

House progress: front bedroom

I hadn't planned what was going to go in this room of my miniature house as it wasn't going to be a plot point for the narrative of the piece.

I thought about just filling it with little cardboard boxes and calling it the spare room but my friend encouraged me to at least put a bed in it.

Which I did, and then I added some shelves and drawers.

And then I needed things to fill the shelves of course so I made some tiny books and dvds, a laptop, and iPod and even a magic 8 ball.

A few posters on the wall and suddenly this room was a teenage boys bedroom.

So I guess that's him, with the purple socks, hiding under the duvet.

But what's he hiding from?

The answer to that is in the other bedroom.

Which you'll see soon enough.

House progress: Appliances

I've started adding more details to the rooms in the house, but have realised that the objects don't have to be perfect as when the house has the roof on not a lot of light can get in the rooms.

This is the television for the living room.

I decided to put something on the screen just for fun. I only had an Argos catalogue so my choice was very limited.

So they're watching the X factor. I don't know what that says about the inhabitants of this house...

The living room also has a side table and a sofa. I was able to make the sofa out of cardboard which I painted a shiny brown. In the dim light this looks like brown leather.

The kitchen now has a toaster and a kettle, which meant I had to then make plug sockets.

The sink has been filled with washing up (no taps though...I need to get on that). My tutor didn't like the way the sink was obviously made of aluminium foil and as I couldn't think of a better way to make it I added plates and cups to cover it up.

It will also add to the narrative of the piece. Why has the washing up been left only half done?

House progress: porch

More house progress. It's been a busy week guys.

The porch and garage now has a roof!

But before I attached the roof I realised I should probably finish the inside of the porch because once the roof is on I'll have limited access.

I made a little chest with a seat on which I imagine the little inhabitants of this house sitting on to put on their shoes. You've seen the fabric I used on the top here and here. That stuff was a good buy.

I also make a row of coat hooks from some small pins that I bent into shape. They kept scratching my hand when I was reaching in to arrange things. 

The porch also has a doormat but I wouldn't want to wipe my shoes on it as it's actually made of sandpaper that I painted.

Paving

More progress on my degree show house.

The back of the house now has paving!

I scored individual paving slabs into a piece of thick grey card and roughly painted them.

Then I smudged charcoal over the paving so it would go into the cracks to look like dirt.

I also added grass scatter, the kind used on model railways, along with dried tea and mixed herbs.

I'm really pleased with the way this turned out as it looks pretty realistic. It was also nice to get some instant results as it seems most of the parts I'm working on for this building are taking a long time, but it doesn't look like I'm getting anyway.

Inside the house

 Initially I wasn't going to bother too much with the inside of the house I'm making, but after being encouraged by my tutor and my family, and then getting a bit carried away, the inside it starting to take shape.

This is the ground floor with the hall, kitchen and living room.

View through the porch window of the stairs.

The front door.

Uh-oh, the glass has been smashed!

The view into the living room.

I still need to add furniture.

The kitchen.

I thought it would be cool to print the wallpaper using another hand made rubber stamp.

Cos it's not like I have tonnes of other things on this house to work on...

A house doesn't need a roof if it has hand-printed wallpaper, right?

House progress

My house is taking shape.

Windows and doors really do make all the difference.

All the brickwork took 3 days to complete!

I made a new brick stamp as my first one wasn't the right scale.
And this one has more individual bricks so it covers more ground. 

Here's the house at the moment.

It's my biggest miniature yet!

Baby on the Doorstep

This is my newest miniature.

I'm finding I'm doing more exterior pieces compared to last year. I guess it's good to try out different things.

It's a cute little bungalow with a baby in a box on the front doorstep.

This actually happened in my home town, except the baby was in a plastic bag not a box. Sad.

This is the first piece where I have an actual person in it. Usually I make a point of leaving figures out but it wouldn't have worked without the tiny baby.

I painted a bead skin coloured and tucked it in some fabric which I folded swaddling-style (a trick I learnt from Lost) to look like a blanket. 

The slate roof tiles were cut from black paper with white chalk over it, and then individually glued to the roof.

In a recent tutorial my tutor said they were "bloody good".

Yes, some people in England actually do speak like that.

I tried to challenge myself a bit with the piece so instead of plain windows I tried out a stained glass effect. From a distance it looks alright.

The door knob is an earring stud which was conveniently the right size.