How to Make a Gingerbread House for a Lawn Decoration at Christmas

Create your own life-sized version of a gingerbread house.

Ring in the holiday season by nestling an enormous gingerbread house in the center of your lawn. Creating a gingerbread house decoration from scratch is easier than you think, and can be accomplished in a matter of hours. This year, instead of assembling a tabletop gingerbread house, build one on a larger scale. Real gingerbread houses will eventually crumble and fall apart, but you can look forward to setting out this house year after year.

Things You'll Need

• Children's play tent
• Light brown spray paint
• Tarp or newspapers
• White craft batting
• White craft stuffing
• Colored plastic bowls
• Scissors
• Craft glue
• Large paint brush
• Measuring tape
• Stapler

Instructions

1. Purchase a house-shaped child's play tent. As of December 2010, such tents could be obtained for a cost of between $20 and $50, and are available from a wide variety of toy shops and discount department stores. As long as the tent is shaped like a house, the specific design is irrelevant.

2. Assemble the tent outside. Set it atop a painter's tarp or layers of newspaper.

3. Paint the front, back and sides of the tent with light brown spray paint.

4. Allow the paint to dry for the time specified on the can.

5. Apply multiple coats of paint, leaving ample time between coats for the paint to dry. Continue until the tent is an even brown with nothing of the original design showing through.

6. Measure the length and width of the playhouse roof. Add 6 inches to each the length and width.

7. Use the measurement to create a swath of white craft batting. Staple together smaller pieces of batting if necessary. The batting will be used to build a "frosting" roof.

8. Squeeze a generous amount of craft glue onto the upper lips of 18 colorful plastic bowls. Overturn them on top of the sheet of batting, in a regular pattern. The bowls will serve as "gumdrop" accents.

9. Allow the bowls to dry for the time specified on the bottle of glue.

10. Cover the playhouse roof with craft glue, either by squeezing it out of the bottle or painting it on with a brush.

11. Lay the craft batting on top of the roof, allowing it to hang over the edge on each side.

12. Paint the outlines of windows and a door using a generous amount craft glue instead of paint. Stick handfuls of white stuffing onto the outlines and allow them to dry. The stuffing will create the illusion of drawn in frosting.

13. Glue more colored bowls to the side of the house if desired.