I love making gingerbread houses at Christmas. It became a tradition for me to decorate them with my mom about 10 years ago when I was ill at Christmas and couldn't get out of the house very often. A lot of people I know think traditions have to be something you've always done, but they have to start somewhere. I was an adult when I started this tradition, but it's still special to me and gives me something special to look forward to at the holidays.
While I did decorate a real gingerbread house this year, I forgot to take pictures. But that's ok! I have another project to show you that relates.
I bought this ceramic house at Michael's a few weeks before Christmas at 50% off. That means it only cost about $3. It's a kids' craft set, but that doesn't mean adults can't do it too! A lot of kids' crafts are more challenging than you might think, but they're also really fun and can be relaxing during the stressful holiday season.
Now the paints that come with these kids' sets are anything but inspiring. Fortunately, I have a ton of paint on hand. I used my own Artist's Loft acrylics, both regular and metallic. I also put several coats of gesso on the house to help the paint stick and reduce the number of coats of paint I would need later.
While this piece didn't have to be a gingerbread house, I used those colors as inspiration. As I was painting, I decided to use a matte brown for the house and metallic colors for all of the details. I thought this would make them stand out more and let the lights in the windows and around the roof sparkle.
I had painted the wreath a solid metallic green, but then decided I wanted to add some red berries. If I had just painted them directly on top of the green, the colors would have been pretty muddy and dull. To fix that, I made some little dots of gesso on the wreath that I later painted red.
After I had finished painting the house, I thought it needed a little something more. Remember the cheesy paint the kit came with? It turns out I had a use for it after all! There was one pot of a clear glittery paint that I brushed over the "snowy" parts to make them really sparkle. You can't see it clearly in the picture, but it looks great in person.
I love the way the house came out. It makes a cute little decoration on its own, but I think I might try painting more ceramic houses next year and see if I can make a Christmas village.
Comments