I wasn't suppose to do a Gingerbread House this year because last year's house caused such a ruckus, that Kyle said it wasn't worth it. However, I saw a great idea from a fellow cookier (The Cookie Architect) that used a village of cookies instead of the standard 3D Gingerbread House.
I found my inspiration from some holiday scrap-booking paper. I liked how the scene has multiple layers. It has the frozen river on the bottom, then a layer of trees, a road, and finally the buildings at the top of the page. It's fun to look around the page and see all the different activities going on. I also love the color-scheme (it was the same one I used in my wedding). I made most of the cookies from Gingerbread and a few just out of sugar cookie dough.
I had a great time working on this project and I'm very pleased on how it turned out. I'll let you know if I win a prize!
The village has four buildings in the back that consist of an apartment building (can you see Santa coming down the chimney?), a few single-family homes, and a retirement community. I added detailed walking paths, trees, a snowman and even a truck delivering a Christmas tree.
I wanted to use the apartment building because I could add a lot of details into the windows. I have a girl drinking cocoa, a Christmas tree, a cat, a shade, an elf, and some stars. These came from a Studio Calico stamp set.
2015 Vintage Truck with tree
2012 Vintage truck with tree
2011 Vintage truck with tree
I like to look back every year to see my progression in skill and detail. Just like most things, if you keep up with it, you will improve more than you ever thought!