it takes a (gingerbread) village

how many of you have dreamed of making REAL gingerbread houses...

and then tried it? UGH! it's an exercise in futility, in my opinion!

(i'm a pretty good baker...
it's just getting them to stay together and upright that stumps me!)

i've found a totally 'deb' solution to that dilemma: 
just PAINT some ceramic houses to LOOK like gingerbread!

i took some little ceramic houses that i've had for a few years now

and gave them a simple makeover with brown and white paint

and now i have a darling 'gingerbread' village on my mantel

that matches the big 'gingerbread' dollhouse shared in my last post.

continue reading for details (and a peek BACK at how i used them before!)

the white ceramic houses i have were bought at Dollar Tree, Target,

and 99 Cents Only stores over the course of a few years.

i've used them a LOT, in ALL seasons... from spring to winter!

here are a few of the most recent versions:

when i first got them, i painted the roofs white to match the houses

(many of them were a metallic hue).

for this project, i used plain old craft paint in a dark brown color
to cover the body of the houses. it took two coats
(and dried much darker than i had intended...
so if you wanna' call these 'chocolate houses' instead, it's ok with me!)

white artists' paint (it's thicker!) was applied with a VERY small brush
to create all of the frosty details around the windows and doors,
 icicles dripping from the roofs and drifts of snow at the base of each house.

just as with the dollhouse makeover in my last post,
I could have added a lot of white squiggles and dots as details on these - 
but i chose to keep it simple this time.

to build this mantel display,
i've made use of one of the 'tricks' in my arsenal from my years of creating retail displays
and decorating executive homes for the holidays:

use small white boxes to provide 'lift' to some of the houses,
so it's not just a straight line of things sitting on a mantel.
the white polyfil 'snow' hides the boxes and the cord for the mini lights.

( below this post, i've added a link to a past post
showing one of those Department 56 village setups ;) )

as with the dollhouse makeover, i added some trees to the landscape...

painted brown and sprinkled with glitter,
they still looked a little bit bare...
so i glued on some pom pom trim and tiny rickrack as 'frosting' details.

and yep, you've seen those trees before, too!

picked up at the Target dollar spot in 2021,
i covered these little wood trees with yellow sweaters to fit my 'sweet sweater holiday' theme.

ripping that fabric off and repainting them this year wasn't hard at all...
and i already have a plan for them NEXT year! LOL

(and have you noticed yet that this year's theme has NO yellow in it??!!!
it's a Christmas miracle lol!)

if you don't have any ceramic or wood village houses,
check out your local thrift shops as well as discount stores (Dollar Tree, Dollar General)
and remember:
even if they look outdated, a bit of paint can work wonders
to make them into a charming gingerbread village. wink.

related content:

gingerbread dollhouse makeover 2022

sweet sweater holiday trees and village mantel 2021

harvest moon halloween mantel + shadowbox frame 2021

ceramic house mantel 2020

elegant Department 56 Dickens Village display

shared online: 

funky junk interiors | new upcycled ideas #655

thank you for featuring my project, Miss Donna!

creatively beth | creative crafts linky party #122 

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