29 November 2022
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Use polymer clay to create perfect miniature Christmas gingerbread houses for your dolls house or miniature scene this festive season!
"Inspired by Mary Berry’s gingerbread house, in this tutorial I will be showing you how to create your own miniature version featuring giant chocolate buttons, candy-like windows and lashings of icing for a cosy and homemade look" Maive Ferrando
You will need
Materials required:
- Beige, light brown, white, dark brown and white polymer clay
- Fimo liquid
- Yellow soft pastels
- Miniature cookies, chocolate and sweets (pre-baked)
Tools required:
- Paper
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Tiles to work on
- Blades
- Toothbrush
- Small round cutter
- Craft knife
- Dotting tool
- Pointy tool
- Cling film
- Tweezers
- Plastic piping bag
1 Using a pencil and ruler, trace the shape of the front and sides of the gingerbread house on a piece of paper and cut them out. To make your templates last longer, you can seal them in see-through tape.
2 Mix light beige polymer clay and a smaller amount of light brown to get a gingerbread colour and adjust as desired.
3 Roll the clay through setting #3 or #4 of your clay conditioning machine and cut out two of the shapes. If you don’t have a clay conditioning machine, use a rolling pin with guides on both sides (a few playing cards stacked together work well) so the sheet is about 1mm thick or so.
4 Texture the pieces with a toothbrush, remembering to texture all the sides as well.
5 Using a small round cutter, cut the arch of the door and a blade to trim the remainder of the clay. At this stage you can add a little shading with brown soft pastels on the edges to make them look baked.
6 Using a craft knife, cut out two small windows on the side walls of the gingerbread house. Mix some Fimo liquid with yellow soft pastels to make a melted candy-like substance and use it to fill in the windows. Part-bake the pieces for 10 minutes at 110 ° Celsius.
7 Once baked and cool, texture a sheet of polymer clay in the gingerbread mix and gently press the pieces in place to build the house. Cut the base around the house allowing space to add decorations and texture before baking again for 10 minutes.
8 Measure the roof pieces and make a paper template. Make them in the same fashion as the other parts and part-bake them. Apply some firm white ‘icing’ made from mixing white polymer clay and Fimo liquid to bond the roof pieces to the house.
9 To make the giant chocolate buttons, roll out a thin sheet of dark brown polymer, place a sheet of cling film on it and use a small cutter to cut out the shapes. Part-bake for 10 minutes.
10 Apply firm white ‘icing’ to the roof and place all the chocolate buttons, starting from the bottom. You may need to cut some in half to fill in the gaps.
11 To make a little chimney, cut a small square of gingerbread mix polymer clay, poke a hole in the centre, texture it and add it to the roof. To make shell-like decorations, roll small pieces of white clay into balls and then into tear drops by rolling only one side of them. Flatten them slightly and use a pointy tool to create lines converging toward to the narrow end. Place them on top of the roof and part-bake.
12 Take your white ‘icing’, add a little more Fimo liquid if it’s too firm, and place it in a plastic piping bag. Trim a small piece of the tip and start piping! You can also use this mix as glue to add other decorations.
13 Add the last few touches with pre-baked biscuits, sweets or chocolates; your imagination is the limit! Bake one last time for at least 30 minutes and glaze once cool, if required.
Top tip: Cut and texture all the parts of the gingerbread house on a tile or another oven safe surface, as transferring your cut out pieces to a baking tray will distort the shapes.
On a role? Want to make more gorgeous Christmas accessories for your dolls house or miniature scene? Why not try creating your own miniature Christmas tree decorations? Or these incredibly realistic mince pies!
