Gingerbread House "Icing"

[Charlene]

Hi all! I'm asking this 'cause I'm sure somebody here will have the definitive answer.

My sister has purchased a kit -- the Astor -- to do as a permanent gingerbread house. She's not currently on-line so I'm posing the question for her. She pretty much has everything she'll need to do the outside decor, but she's asking me if she can put spackle into a disposable pastry bag and use plastic Wilton tips to put the squiggly icing and lines on the the house. If this will work this way, do you need to thin out the spackle or do you just use it as is?

[havanaholly]

Spackling compound is thick enough she will likely want to thin it somewhat. I use the vinyl acrylic spackle by Dap (in the white tub with a red top) and it can be thinned with water (just do a few drops at a time until it handles like frostong in that pastry bag). She might want to pipe her trims onto waxed paper first and let them dry before applying them to the windows & doors, rather than applying them directly to the house.

To "frost" the roof she can use the spackle straight from the tub. I like a matte primer to spackle over. The freebie credit cards you get in the mail make perfect spackle spreaders. She won't need to apply it more than 1/16"-1/8" thick and she can make icycles from either white glue or spackle onto waxed paper and glue them on when dry and then smooth spackle over the edges to join them in to the roof. When it's all dry she'll want to paint it with white glossy interior latex to seal the spackle.

Polymer clay makes wonderful candy decorations.

The bamboo skewers and sections of 1/8" diameter dowel can be painted brown and coarse sand sprinkled sparingly on them to look like pretzels for fencing...

Be sure to post pictures of the finished product.

[Charlene]

Thanks Holly -- I knew you'd have the answer! :wub:

Certainly going to pass along your hints & tips to her -- she does decorate cakes, so she should have a handle on how it should feel, etc. Love the ideas for the icicles and pretzels too. She found some hole-less button things at Michaels that look like candies and little gingerbread men to use as patterns so I do know that she plans to make some candy buttons and ginger men from Fimo (she's excellent with polymer clay). Sounds like a fun project. This is her first house totally by herself without the help of 'big sister' and she's very excited so I know the pictures will eventually roll in

[KathieB]

I just had a thought ... I wonder how the 3-D paint would work. It has a fairly tiny spout, so it might work for the more delicate lines of icing. I've used it to decorate wooden birdhouses, etc., so I don't think there would be a problem with it sticking to the painted gingerbread.

[ilovecats]

What a great idea for that kit! I can't wait to see pictures!

[Color Me Holly]

Please share pictures with us. It sounds like avery interesting build.

[Charlene]

I just had a thought ... I wonder how the 3-D paint would work. It has a fairly tiny spout, so it might work for the more delicate lines of icing. I've used it to decorate wooden birdhouses, etc., so I don't think there would be a problem with it sticking to the painted gingerbread.

Thanks Kathie -- I've never used 3-D paint, but I'll pass this hint along to Therese, too (that girl has just got to get on-line :wub: ).

[havanaholly]

I used white puffy paint to "frost" a cake (DIY in DHM mini years ago) and the stuff doesn't hold detail. Have her practice on waxed paper to see what she can make it do.