Our First Halloween House

2 holiday houses and a February house (why not?!)  within a year, and we decided to make a Halloween house the following fall.  (Halloween is a pretty fabulous holiday after all.)

I spent early 2011 scouring the internet for gingerbread inspiration, patterns, etc.  Pinterest was still in Beta at this time, so I didn't have that luxury.  I printed what I could.

Oh yeah, and I got married.  So that kept me pretty busy.  We wanted to build a gingerbread church, but time and stress got away from us and that didn't happen.

Until September-ish.  Plans began for a Halloween house.

I purchased a pattern from Ultimate Gingerbread and that's what we used for our first Halloween house.

This house was for fun, creativity, and to try out any new techniques we could think of.

We learned how to make icing black, and paint cute faces on pumpkins.  (Again, this is Megan's awesome talent and attention to little details.)

 We learned how to stain gingerbread and make it look like wood.

and we learned that broken pieces can be patched with icing and covered up in the decoration process!


 

and we practiced with royal icing to pipe webs on wax paper and transfer them to the house when dry.

Ground up animals crackers make good dirt.

 We gave Old Yeller a bone and Charlotte a little spider, as per the story.

 Turns out, Megan is awesome at molding.

 and we discovered that one picture just doesn't do it justice. :-)