Not sure it's appropriate to call it gingerbread, because it's made of graham crackers. Learned several things, and am already thinking about what to make next year.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27321134@N08/sets/72157625545974642/

Penguins inspired by (and flat-out copied from) CCers: aine2, mya-carden, Bourgonsgirl, Carli723, cakebaker1978, DeniseRoy, and cakesalot13.

Anyone else making a gingerbread house this year?

Yes, Our restaurant employees each made one for the first time last year, and we displayed them in the restaurant. Our customers loved them and wanted to know how to make them. So this year I taught 25 "first timers" how to make and decorate a gingerbread house. They all enjoyed themselves, and are already planning for next year! You did a beautiful job on yours as well. I know you had to have had fun, and a new tradition!

I baked 19 houses worth of pieces today! Tomorrow I will make the candy windows and attach them, Wed. I will decorate the pieces with RI and after it's all dry, will then put all the pieces together. Hopefully by Thurs. I will have 18 gingerbread houses

I think making them with graham crackers the way you did is harder than making with gingerbread.. It is very cute.

very cute, i just bought the wilton ginger bread house cuttters today i want to make one so bad. i just hope i get the time with everything else going on

Wow, crumb and Madame, you two put me to shame with the amount of gingerbread you do.

I understand how one can get bitten by "the bug" of gingerbread house-making.

dawncr, that is too adorable for words! I'm putting in my fav's.

MadameRaz: You are either inspired or crazy. Let's be kind and go for inspired.

I just finished my 2nd gingerbread house (ever) using the Wilton Giant GB kit and not even making my own GB it took me 15 hours for the 1st house and "only" 10 for the second. I'm exhausted! I made the 2nd house (not in pics yet) for a really grouchy teacher that nobody likes and just had her pay me for the ingredients. After delivery today at the school we sat down and talked for the first time and I learned that she has a 27 yr old son in a Sober Living House and suffers from depression. Maybe my GB house will be a blessing to her home--I hope so. It was worth every minute I put into it.

You can see my 1st GB house on my site (click on the www below). I am VERY proud of that puppy!!! I donated it to the before/after Care program at my niece/nephews elementary school. Since there are about 150 kids in the program, I also made 175 mini-cutter GB cookies (plain, NOT decorated) so each of the kids could eat one GB cookie.

Now I'm taking a LOOOONNNGGGG nap!

I willingly admit to both: inspired and crazy , but once you get started, making 19 houses is only about 24 hrs worth of work (12 of it baking!) so if you break it down it's not too horrible. 7 of the 19 are in fact complete! YAY! they are something new I've never tried - I will post tomorrow... anyways, what I did was used water thinned gingerbread dough to pipe on designs to the pieces and after they were baked I glazed them with thinned RI and brushed them with a sponge brush so the baked on designs would stick out- they are cool! The rest are plain ones and will get decorated tomorrow.
I give them every year as Christmas gifts to family and friends and besides the investment in time, they save me so much money that I would've spent buying them all gifts.

I made my very first one last week too but yours is just the cutest. I love how you added penguins.

I just posted the first 7 that I described. They are kind of plain (my kids description of them) but sometimes that's a good thing for people who aren't into the whole bag o'candy per house type thing. Tomorrow, I'll post the rest
BTW thanks for the compliment on the Zombies. My cousin and her husband are professional zombies, they work haunted houses and hire out for events. She also knits zombie dolls and the cookies are based on her dolls you can check them out here on her etsy page: www.mischiefmaker.etsy.com

dawncr and everybody else on this thread, check out MadameRaz's pics. It's amazing to go from one wonderful style like dawncr's colorful, playful, darling penguins to the European look of MadameRaz white only traditional houses. [MadameRaz, you have to give us instructions! please?)

I love CC. I want to give all of you a big, fuzzy hug right now...sniff.....

Thanks for the heads up, Apti.

I love, love, love that technique, MadameRaz! I adore the simplicity and elegance of the baked-in designs highlighted with white. Beautiful.

I'm thinking now I'll try something like that next year, if you don't mind others trying out your technique, Madame. (I'm just a hobbyist, and don't sell anything.)

This is wonderful! Love the little penguin making a snow angel.

Anyone can and should try it, I absolutely can't take credit for the idea either. K8memphis is the one who suggested it last week and I thought I'd give it a try on the gingerbreads.

....just posted some more houses. These ones are covered in fondant!

I am officially done! I ended up with 18 houses total - which is great, I baked for 19 and only one piece broke(I probably could've fixed it but I'm too pooped for another). I started on monday, took tuesday off, and will have to wait until tomorrow to wrap them up in cellophane. The best thing is that over a dozen people on my Christmas list just got taken care of!

I did one this year, just remeber to let the base dry for at aleast an hour before putting the roof on.

my 4 ys old grandsons just decorated this one ( i made the gingerbread thou)

cant attach in my photos

I use a home-made template cut out of heavy cardstock. I use one of those sewing thingys that looks like a pizza cutter (lol, can you tell sewing isn't my forte`) I cut before and after baking...before to conserve dough and after to straighten everything up to the exact shape.