Unique Easy Rustic Christmas Cottage Gingerbread House Idea
Every year a woman named Mrs. Craft held an annual gingerbread house decorating party in her beautiful Beverly Hills home. There she had long tables with a wide array of all different kinds of candies, trees, and figures to make any style of gingerbread house you can think of. 
What was especially interesting and unique to us were the collection of realistic looking candies: tiles for the roof, stones, trees, garland. The very first year we attended, we decided to utilize those to make the picture perfect Rustic Christmas Cottage of our dreams.
Mrs. Craft has since passed away and in her memory we’re going to show you how to decorate a dream Christmas cottage gingerbread house of your own.
Don’t forget to pin it… 
What you’ll need
1 gingerbread house
Icing
For the roof:
A piping bag with either the tip cut off or a smaller round tip
Necco Chocolate Wafers Candy Rolls
Plastic Santa and Reindeer for Cakes/Cake topper
Walls:
Chocolate Rocks for the walls and walkway (get them here)
Edible pearls both small and medium sized for the upper front white wall of the house. If you don’t have these or don’t want to use these you can either sprinkle sugar over the icing, shredded coconut, or use a flat tip and icing or frosting to make horizontal wooden panels like we did on the back of the house.
1 sour patch ribbon cut in four pieces for the shutters on both windows
One gold coin for the window ledge (optional)
Exterior Christmas Decor:
3-4 candy wreaths for the front and back – We used the ready made kind but you can easily make them yourself with icing using a star tip
We used Nerds Rainbow Rope Candy for the “lights” around the middle of the house- You can also use Nerds Holiday Rope Candy if you want only green and red “lights” instead of rainbow colors.
For the grounds:
Icing
2-3 Plastic trees for cakes
One foil covered snowman candy (optional)
Directions: Walls
Starting at the bottom of the front wall of the house squeeze a strip of icing then press the stones in it. Keep applying more strips of icing and more stones, working your way up the wall until just about halfway up the wall or to the top of the front door.
Continue laying your rocks and be sure to stop at the same height on all four walls. Make sure there is enough room on the side walls to fit the Nerd Rope above the windows.
Cut a piece of Nerd Rope to fit the length of the front wall of the house. Above the stones and front door, pipe a straight line of icing and press the nerd rope into it until it”s secure. do it on all four walls.
If you’re going to use pearls pipe a small amount of icing in the upper center of the front wall of the house and press in your candy wreath. Then ice the remainder of the wall and press the pearls into the wall until secure, larger and smaller pearls.
On the back white wall of the house we decided to make a panel look by piping icing horizontally using a flat or tear drop tip. Then stick on your candy wreath.
Cut one piece of your Sour Patch ribbon the same height of the window. Then cut another and place each piece on each side of the window with icing for window shutters.
Don’t forget to put a wreath on the front door.
The Roof
Starting at the bottom edge of one side of the roof pipe a line of icing. Line the edge of the roof with chocolate Neccos.
Pipe another line of icing above your first line of Neccos. Place the second line of Neccos slightly overlapping the first.
Do the same to rest of the roof on both sides.
At the very top of the roof in the middle pipe a line of icing and press the Santa sleigh and reindeer on.
Take your small tipped piping bag and make icicles starting from the edge of the roof squeezing a ball sized amount of icing pulling down in a vertical motion. Here is an instructional video on how to make icicles. We tried to alternate lengths to make it look more realistic. Here’s a great icicle tutorial by Wilton, the video gives a lot of good decorating tips and techniques as well.
The Grounds
Pipe white icing on the grounds of the house and press candy rocks infront of the front door for a little cobble stone walk way.
Place trees, a snowman, or any other candies you’d like on the grounds. We put trees at each corner of the house and a snowman in the back with a few other candies along the sides and in the front.
You’re finished!
We sincerely hope you enjoy making this house and if you do please post pics on Pinterest in the comments section or email them to us, we would love to see them. To us this is more than just a gingerbread house, its a more like a model for our dream winter cottage.
Have a Merry Christmas and an even Merrier New Year!
Love,
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