Emma Mitchell

Author, designer-maker, naturalist, illustrator, mum

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Making winter December: miniature gingerbread houses

So much for my plan for a post on 1st December. In my defence there has been a birthday here in recent days- my Eldest has just turned 10 and the first week of this significant month always feels as though it should have less in it, yet each year there is more. My yarn and hook have been to hand at the most frenetic times. I find that just a few stitches can soothe an addled, overstretched noggin.
Way back in the mists of blogging time, (2009 I think) I remember an image that made me gasp in a crafty covetous way – teeny tiny little houses made of shreddies, or perhaps they were ‘graham crackers’ on Linaloo’s blog.

 

An edible pixie village.
Oof.
With one very tiny and one quite small Mitchell here was no time in 2009 to do anything other than marvel at the minuscule brilliance, sigh a little and bookmark it in my noggin as something I would do… eventually.

 

Imagine my joy, then, at stumbling on this miniature 3D printed house cutter on Etsy. Walls, roofs and weeny gables, all perfectly proportioned-no fiddly knife work and no trying to perform surgery on a Shreddie. A bit of gingerbread dough (recipe here- I used a quarter of these amounts), a few presses into it with the cutter, 7 minutes in the oven, some thick icing and there is the makings of a baked hamlet.
Guess what I’ve been doing this morning…

 

Each residence is approximately 3 cm tall. The perfect size for eg. a pygmy shrew or a Borrower, or maybe a Sylvanian family piglet.

I don’t think anyone is going to call the biscuitty Kevin McCloud any time soon but LOOK! I may have conjured some tiny trees by modelling a few squat (slightly wonky) cones, such was my (slightly barking) glee.

I would rather like to be pygmy shrew right now. I would make one of these little houses my special festive gaff complete with open fire, rocking chair and special shrew booze. In the New Year I would eat my house and move to a snug place under a hedge. Oh yes.

 

This tasty village has been the antidote to grey skies, festive stress and deadline ghastliness in the last week.Have you been conjuring some soothing festive loveliness amongst the crazed lists and dashing about? Have you taken an hour or two off and made something that cheers eyes and mind? Are there tiny lights twinkling in a corner at your house?

If you’ve blogged about your creative way of surviving the bonkersness of this time of year do add the link to the December blogshop below. I know we’re already a few days in but what’s a few days between friends? I’ll be back in a day or two to announce my favourite image/post from November along with the stupendous Kirsty Elson’s creative process. NB there’ll be a parcel of handmade joy and wonder for my favourite each month.

Finally, VERY EXCITING NEWS…in the coming weeks the ace team at Mollie Makes will be joining in with Making Winter once Issue 61 is in the shops on Thursday, so we’ll be in excellent company. More on this thrilling story later….

 

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Comments

  3. They're brilliant, what an excellent idea to make them tiny. We made a gingerbread house a couple of years ago, we must have had four pounds of dough, honestly it was enough to feed a village. Small is definitely the way to go. Congratulations on Mollie Makes joining in with Making Winter, how fantastic! CJ xx

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  4. I love your biscuity village. Ginger biscuits are good for dunking too – and dunking is good on grey days. My work has moved on to post Christmas plans and the weather is so mild it hardly seems like winter. I'm in danger of completely forgetting that Christmas is fast
    approaching.

    Reply

  5. Who could resist the charm of your tiny gingerbread village? The little cookie cutter is rather marvelous and I could imagine quite a large village popping up, with those lovely conical trees along the way.

    Bravol on the Mollie Makes connection, too.

    December activities getting a bit bonkers around here. Still think it will all come together and trying to fit in some relaxation time. Deep sleep is marvelous, too.

    xo

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  6. Wow – your teeny houses are so sweet! Perhaps they warrant a visit from a gingerbread George Clark instead? In past years I have struggled many times with my own three small children and pre-made gingerbread houses, trying to assemble them and get the walls to stay up and the roof on, only to have dripping icing, sweeties falling off and the roof caving in. Small is definitely the way to go!
    Cathy x

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  7. Well they're ridiculously cute, aren't they! So adorable, and I love that someone has put a 3D printer to properly good use ;D I've always had a hankering to make a gingerbread house, but never really had the justification. These are sooooo adorable <3

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  14. gan good job, this article is very interesting to note, cool deh,, of course we have new insights that we get after reading it, thanx yah 🙂

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  15. Hello, Your link from the recipe about gingerbread dough doesn’t work, could you give a working link, please. Thank you!

    Reply

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