Gingerbread Candy House - Sculpey Clay Projects

Gingerbread Candy House (Advanced Intermediate to Advanced Skills) Design by Tamila Darling
Materials: Paper mache birdhouse (we used a 3" high x 3.5" wide x 2.5" deep) Premo! Sculpey in the following colors: Raw Sienna 5392 (1 bar) Sea Green 5305 (2 blocks) Cadmium Red 5382 (2 blocks) White 5001 (5 blocks) Sculpey III White 001 (2 blocks) Translucent Liquid Sculpey (referred to as TLS) Sculpey Super Slicer Sculpey Clay Gun Pasta Machine (thicknesses referred to are Based on the Atlas machine) Scissors Paper Pen or pencil Utility knife Needle tool or pin Sheet of plastic needlepoint canvas 18 gauge wire (Artistic Wire, or WireArt) in white Tacky brand craft glue
Directions:
NOTE: A lot of white clay is used in this project. It is important to keep your work space clean and to frequently clean your hands after using other colors.
Starlight Mints with a Skinner Blend Twist:
	Use one 2 oz. block of Premo White and one 2 oz. block of Premo Cadmium Red. Make a Skinner blend Sheet the width of the opening of your pasta machine.
	Bring the bottom of the two triangles up and fold in half. Insert the fold into the pasta machine and roll through. Fold again in the SAME direction and roll through with the fold inserted FIRST. Repeat 20 times until the colors are gradated as shown.
	Fold your Skinner Blend in 1/2 again and run through pasta machine with the full white edge first on a #1 setting. This will elongate the piece.
	Run the blend through a final time on a #5 setting with the full white edge first. You will have a long ribbon. Be careful to support as it comes out of rollers to avoid tearing.
	With the Sculpey Super Slicer, cut the blended sheet in 1/2 lengthwise so you have two narrower complete Skinner Blends.
	Roll one strip into a rod with the red in the center, the other with the white in the center.
	Reduce the rod with the red on the outside into a long thin snake. Cut eight lengths of the reduced rod the same length as your center rod which is the other Skinner blend roll. Roll a long thin snake of Premo White the same diameter as your reduced rod of red. Cut eight lengths of the white snake. Alternate the red Skinner Blend rods with the plain white rods.
	After alternating the reduced red and white rods, place these around your Skinner blend center rod that has its white on the outside.
	Follow the Skinner blend directions using white and Sea Green clay to make another Starlight Mint cane.
	Reduce your new Starlight Mint canes to approximately 3/4" diameter. Cut off four slices of each of your red and green mint canes. Cut wire to desired lengths. Put a touch of TLS on the end of the wire and insert about 1/2 way into your slices to create a lollipop/sucker.
	Set these pieces aside on index cards placed on your baking sheet.
Peppermint Candies:
	Next, reduce both the red and green mint canes to approximately 1/4" to 3/8" in diameter. Notice the sizeable difference in the photograph. Using your Sculpey Super Slicer, cut both of your canes into pieces that are 1/8" thick to make candies. If your clay is too soft, refrigerate for 10 minutes and proceed with cutting. Place the candies on the baking sheet with the suckers and bake for 15 minutes at 275 degrees F for 15 minutes in a calibrated oven.
Candy Canes:
	You will need about 3 oz. of clay for the candy sticks, candy canes, and ribbon candy. You can either utilize scraps equaling this amount from your canes. Use clay straight from the package, or a combination of both as we have done. Using any scraps from your canes, or by just putting pieces of different colors of clay in a pile, we will make our candy canes.

	Compact all of your scraps together and marble, just a little to get lines of clay going the length of your scrap ball.
	Roll and stretch the clay into a snake and cut apart into sections for further reducing later. Notice how the lines are still going the length of the scrap clay. Set aside half of one of these lengths for ribbon candy that we will make and use later.
	Take each remaining portion and reduce down. Reduce one six-inch length to 1/4" thick in diameter. Reduce the remaining lengths to a 1/8" thick in diameter. Using your hands, rotate the snake by rolling one end of the clay away from you while rolling the other end of the clay towards you. This will make the clay twist and give you a candy cane effect.

	You will need to bake about 30" of candy canes (1/8" thick diameter) in straight sticks. These will be used to decorate the roof and corners of the house later. Cut your 1/4" diameter candy stick in half (about 3" long) and curl the top to form a candy cane. Of your 1/8" diameter sticks, cut 10 lengths 1.5" long. Curl the tops to form the candy cane. NOTE: We will be sticking these into the snow and you will lose about 3/8" in height, so plan for that excess when forming your candy canes. Place all sticks and candy canes onto your baking surface.




Hearts:
	Using a pasta machine, make a flat sheet of clay on a #3 setting of Premo! Sculpey Cadmium Red. Using Kemper 3/8" heart cutter, cut out 10 hearts. Using Kemper 1/8" heart cutter, cut out 15 hearts. Place the hearts on the baking surface with your candy pieces and candy canes. Bake all of these pieces at 275 degrees F for 15 minutes in a calibrated oven.
Covering the House:
	Make a template of the paper mache house that you have chosen to cover. You will need a template for the front/back and sidewalls. We also have made a template of the entire roof including the underhang portion. The use of these templates will make it easier for you to accurately cover the house without excess.
	Make a mark in the center of the template where the hole is in the birdhouse. Using a needle tool, gently poke a hole into it so you can mark this area on your clay later to cut the window. Draw a doorway opening onto the bottom of the house's front.
	Turn the paper mache house over, and with a utility knife, carefully cut out the bottom of the house plus an opening in the front large enough for the door. This does not have to be exact as the clay will cover any overcutting you may do.
	Condition and roll out a sheet of Raw Sienna Premo! Sculpey clay. You will want the sheet to be large enough to cut all of the wall pieces of your house, depending on the size of your house. Place the sheet of plastic canvas on top of the sheet of Raw Sienna clay. Use a brayer or rolling pin to make impressions into the clay and then carefully remove. You will now have a sugar wafer cookie texture in your clay.
	Position your pattern templates onto the sheet of clay and cut your pieces for your house using the Sculpey Super Slicer. For this house we will need two pieces of each pattern piece to cover the four walls. Use the needle tool or pin and poke through your paper template. This will mark the spot on your front wall to place your window.
	Using a 1/2" Kemper heart cutter, cut out your front window over the spot you earlier marked into the clay. Using a 5/8" Kemper teardrop cutter, cut out the doorway opening. Save the piece you cut out of the wall, as this will be used as the door!
	Decorate the walls with your pre-baked mints and hearts. These smaller pieces can be gently pushed into your house and will adhere during baking. On larger pieces, such as ribbon candy or candy canes, apply a thin coat of TLS for extra strength.
	Lightly coat the paper mache birdhouse with Tacky glue and allow to dry. You may use a hair dryer or heat gun (don't place too closely) to speed the drying. After glue is dry, apply a thin coating of TLS to only the walls of the house. Place each wall onto the house.
	Using a clay gun and Premo! Sculpey white, make some frosting using the small round extruding die. Apply to the front of the house as shown below. Use a straight edge razor blade to carefully cut the pre-baked candy sticks to the same length as the corners of the house. Apply a thin bead of TLS to the corners and gently press the candy sticks onto each corner. Add a pre-baked heart to the front door and wrap the outside edge with some frosting. Bake the house and door at 275 degrees for 20 minutes. Baking now will make it easier for the house to be handled when working on the roof and yard.
	Using 1/2 block of Premo! White and 1/2 block of Sculpey III White, mix and condition these two clays together. Roll out a sheet of white on a #1 setting on the pasta machine. You will want the sheet to be large enough to cut the roof piece using your roof template.
NOTE: Sculpey III & Premo are mixed for this portion. This keeps the clay durable, yet softer and easier to press your candies into it.
	Apply a thin coating of TLS to the roof of the house. Apply also to the under hang of the roof. Put white clay over the roof starting at the bottom side of one under hang, over the top of the roof, to the other under hang. Stretch and gently manipulate the clay to pull over the edges of the front and back of your roof.
	Decorate the roof with the pre-baked candies by gently pushing them into the roof.
	Zig zag your set-aside striped rod of clay to form ribbon candy. Cut to width of roof top. Bake at 275 degrees F for 20 minutes.
	When ribbon candy is cool, apply a thin coating of TLS to the bottom of the ribbon and apply to roof center line as shown. Additional ribbon candy may be applied to the sides and back of the house. Make more candy cane twist if needed.
	Using a straight edge razor blade, carefully cut the pre-baked candy sticks to the length of your roof edges. Attach candy canes to roof sides with a thin bead of TLS and by gently pushing them into the roof.
Yard:
	Use 1.5 blocks of Sculpey III and Premo. Mix together well and smoothly condition. Run through the pasta machine on a #1 setting. Cut into four equal pieces and stack. Gently press all of the layers together. Use a slicer to cut an area large enough for the yard. Make certain that the yard is big enough so that you can place your house in the center and still have an area large enough to decorate.
	Using your finger, bevel and smooth the edges of the yard.
	Position your baked house onto the yard where you want it, and press just enough to leave an indentation of the house bottom into the clay. Using TLS, run a bead around the bottom edges of the house and reposition in the yard where the indentation was left. Apply TLS to the bottom of the door and place in front yard as if the door is being opened.
	Using the pre-baked candies, decorate the yard by making paths of candies. Insert the suckers and candy canes, using a thin coat of TLS on the portion you are inserting into the yard for extra stability.
	Using your fingers or a pair of tweezers, position candies and hearts throughout the yard. Bake the entire piece at 275 degrees for 30 minutes.