My Gingerbread House and Lighthouse

Now you all can see the construction of my "gingerbread" house and lighthouse from the beginning all the way until completed. Only, I didn't make my house out of gingerbread, but instead used gram crackers. Having never tried gingerbread (ever) I can't compare the two and tell you which is easier to work with. But, be that as it may, I enjoyed the whole process and hope you all enjoy the pictures.

With icing and my house "laid out"

 I used this recipe for the icing to glue my house together. It worked wonderfully and I only made a quarter of the recipe, since it calls for so much!

Once the icing was made, I put it in a ziplock bag with an icing tip on the corner which I had snipped off. Not only did that "contain" the mess, this icing dries pretty quickly so I didn't have to worry about it all drying up on me.

Gluing the first pieces together!

You can start to see the walls coming together.

Getting ready to add the second row of "crackers."

Working on the points of my house.

It took some doing to cut the gram crackers so that I'd have a sloping roof. The first one I tried to cut broke into lots of pieces. I was able to glue some of it back together. Later on I perfected the cutting. :)

Hmm, trying to keep my side piece on.

Lighthouse work

While the sides of my house dried, I began construction of my lighthouse. That was tricky. I didn't have enough hands to hold all the pieces up. It took a while and a bit of patience.

I had it glued!

The roof and dormer.

Getting reading to add that roof.

I thought it might be tricky to get the roof to stay on, but it really wasn't bad. The glue dried quickly enough to hold it.

The other side and the lighthouse.

One thing I should make a note of for you all, if you make a lighthouse like I did, make sure you add something to support the bottom platform. I neglected to do that (it never crossed my mind) and the evening after I had finished decorating it I walked into the kitchen and noticed it was tipped! Problems! Thankfully there was no storm at sea that night and we were able to wait until daylight to fix the problem. :) I just took off the entire platform, placed a small box inside the square and glued the platform back on. The box was tall enough so that the platform could rest on it.

Cutting a gram cracker for part of the lighthouse.

It was fun designing the place for the light to go. :) Pretzels make great windows. :)

What would you do with all that candy?

Preaparing for the foundation.

And now the siding.

The house with only "plywood" for a roof.

Adding the roof

Would you like to live in this quaint cottage by the sea?

 If it were real?

Decorations up!

I didn't have time to get all the decorations finished that night. I'd already spent nearly all day working on it.

"Calking" the sides.

A Barrel with greenery adds a festive touch to the front porch.

The Lighthouse!

 Once the house was finished, it was time to get to work on the Lighthouse. The bottom was fun and easy to make. I also decided to used another base to set my lighthouse on so that I could get to all sides instead of placing it on the same one as the house.

Working on the upper part.

Finished!

The landscaping was fun: water, rocks and snow.

The back of the house.

The lighthouse has a barrel of greenery too.

An aerial view.

Dusk is settling around and the light has been turned on. Actually the "light" is a battery tea light. The roof of the lighthouse comes off and you can turn the light on or off. I also created a small foil box for the tea light to sit in so that it wouldn't get dirty.

A view from the sea

I hope you all have enjoyed watching the process of the creation of my first real gingerbread house and lighthouse. Did it inspire you to create one also? Would you consider making one next year or are you like my sister and best friends who were amazed at my creation, but said, "Why would you want to spend so much time on something that just sits there? :) Answer: Because it was fun! :D

Merry Christmas!

I'll be back on Friday, will you?