Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Gingerbread Barn: Part VI

Animals, animals. The book whose directions I was following only decorated the front of the barnyard animals, but I finally decided to decorate both sides so that the gingerbread barn will look good from any direction, including the back.

It may not be obvious, but these animals are the same ones from yesterday, except that after they dried, I flipped them over and "painted" all over them a second time. This time, the udders of the cows aren't quite so bright, but it's pretty much the same thing as before.

I did the back side of the sheeps as well, although this time I didn't need to paint faces on them since the faces are on the other side.

The chickens I didn't redo on the back, but I did add an additional layer of icing just to reinforce the pieces. Remarkably, not a single one broke on me while getting them off the parchment paper.

I mixed up some coconut shavings with yellow food die to make hay, then glued some into the hayloft with icing, and set a chicken on top of the hay. Looks nice, I think! =)

Now it's time for a little landscaping. I mixed up some brown icing and laid it out more-or-less where I wanted to corral the animals.

Then I sprinkled the icing with cocoa powder. A nice, earthy texture, I think. *nodding*

Time to grow some grass! I took more coconut shavings and mixed it with green food coloring this time around. Presto! Grass!

I laid out green icing where the grass should be. (I probably should have made the green icing a bit greener than I did. Oh, well. *shrug*)

Then sprinkled the grass over it. I also pulled out flower-shaped sprinkles to dot the grass. Flowers are always a nice touch, don't you think? =)

Time to build a fence to keep all of the animals from running away! First I set up the posts with pretzel sticks.

Then follow with the beams across the posts.

Time to add the animals! This particular photo is the only one I took of the shovel, which is merely a bit of Black Jack gum attached to a pretzel piece. On a completely unrelated note, if you look very closely at the neck of the horse in this photo, you'll see a small crack. I accidentally dropped this fellow while I was standing on the hard, tiled ground. The head managed to stay on the horse--which rather surprised me, to tell you the truth, but it does suffer from that small crack, and if you shake the body, you can tell the only thing holding the head on are the thick layers of icing. I put this horse near the back of the barn so the crack in the neck wouldn't be as obvious. =)

And the barn is FINISHED!

Two horses, two cows, three sheep, 11 chickens (I didn't like the painting job I did on one of them, so I didn't use all 12), happily sharing a barn with a silo. Hope y'all enjoyed it! Now I have a kitchen I need to clean up.....

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

looks awesome GT! I would love to start a project like this . . .

~resQlou

"X" Marks the Spot said...

Pretty darn cool. I love projects like that. Great to see it come together over a six part series. I suspect you'll have that for more than one Christmas if you can find a way to keep it safe in the off season.

Nice work.

"X"

Bobguyman said...

Sweet =D (pun not intended)

Just missing the farmer ;)

~BOB~

Stacy Christian said...

Fantastic!

S

Fluffy Cow said...

How cool... it looks great! Wonderful job GT!!

Trexx said...

Deliciously awesome! Needs some turtles.

Anonymous said...

My family enjoyed watching the progress of your barn, GT. It was so much cooler than the kit we did from Costco...

I liked the way you patiently put it together, paying attention to detail. Your commentary was fun to read, too.

The Wegener family, Centralia, WA

Anonymous said...

Very nice Ryan...has been following your masterpiece construction. Thanks for sharing! PS A little sad that you didn't include a turtle for us turtle lovers ;o)
Turtlelove

Anonymous said...

We all knew you were talented but the creativity you exhibited with this gingerbread barn is terrific! The coup de gras was the shovel! Quite ingenious! Who knew all the uses there were for Black Jack gum--besides the obvious, of course!

Merry, merry, Ryan!

~~Doublesaj~~

Kaaren said...

Yum! Great job.

Caitlin T. said...

Looks amazing now that it's done! I really love how you did the grass.

I have a question, though: What do you do with an elaborate gingerbread "house" after the holidays are done? Do you eat it? I've always found the building gingerbread isn't that tasty - it's stale, and the icing used to hold it together is always way too sweet and thick/hard to actually eat.

Ryan said...

Eventually, I'll just be throwing the gingerbread house away. If someone really wants to try eating it, I won't stop them, but it probably won't taste very good.

Cookie Cutter said...

That's an excellent barn, GT! I love the little chickens!! I made a few little houses this year. I rarely get as detailed as you.
After I get tired of looking at it, the house goes out into the back yard, where the squirrels, birds, and other critters devour it.

Ari C'rona said...

It looks great, Ryan! I especially like the sheep!

~Padawan (fka Triple T) :o)

Anonymous said...

I really like how it looks and its cool how the blackjack gum came in handy so much. :D

Anonymous said...

wow! this barn looks really cool! i night go for that shoe stamp too! :P

Ezmerelda of AQ and LbNA said...

Awesome job!

Anonymous said...

Before you discard it - auction it off!

~speedsquare

Team Penguinos said...

Great Job Ryan! I love making gingerbread houses! It is always great to read your blog as well. Did you ever see the tiny gingerbread houses? Here is the link: http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/18/a-gingerbread-house-that-perches-on-the-rim-of-your-mug/

Merry Christmas,
Team Penguinos

Goofy girl said...

You did a great job!!

Dana

Anonymous said...

throw it away?!? you've got to be kidding!....we just had an article in our local paper (The Everett Herald BTW) about elaborate gingerbread houses like the ones you make -- the lady in the article has been doing this for years.....they are donated to a charity and auctioned off. I bet yours would bring a pretty penny to some wonderful charity that benefits children.

Anonymous said...

You can eat it...we eat ours every time. Break it up and put the pieces in a big jar or can. Cut an apple in quarters and lay it on a paper towel on top of the cookie pieces. Put it on top of the fridge and forget about it until spring (or at least a month). Find it, throw out the gnarly old apple, enjoy the delicious, soft, slightly fermented gingerbread. The Best!
KV

Anonymous said...

Incredibly impressive.
Just thinking, though, all that time could have been used carving pink rubber animals, barn, silo.. hey wait that sounds like a LB series, hmm?!