Tagged: frozen

Gingerbread House 2014: Arendelle is in Deep Deep Deep Deep Snow

Sometimes it feels like I’m living in a perpetual winter. We are on year 2 of the snow queen’s domination over both Arendelle and my home. What can I say? The movie is beloved here… watched all the time. As an artist, I often take inspiration from my surroundings and as many of my followers can attest to, Frozen is in my surroundings A LOT! Also, I thought my kiddos would get a kick out of this next project.

Every year some friends and I plan a get-together to make gingerbread houses. Everyone brings tons of candy (and leaves their kids at home for some much-needed mom’s night in). Each year, I try to use the opportunity to learn a new skill. Last year, it was to practice piping 🙂 This year, I wanted to sculpt and work gumpaste. So my gingerbread house was the setting I used for the snow queen.

Upfront, I’ll mention that I always use a gingerbread house kit. We don’t eat ours and I find that I’d rather spend my time on decorating rather than baking. Since I wanted a house with an Arendelle look/feel to the whole thing (long tall roof was a necessity), I chose Trader Joe’s Hexen House kit. (I realize that the Hexen House is actually German and not Scandinavian, but it was the closest I could find without actually making my own).

I pretty much just used some white candies and piping do the front. The front took a few minutes. I wanted the roof to look laden in snow so I used some mini-marshmallows cut diagonally and laid on top of one another. This part was TEDIOUS. It took me more than an hour to hand set these tiny tiles, but it was while talking with my friends and constantly laughing so it wasn’t so bad 😉 I then piped icicles coming down from the roof. As you can see, I had tiny little pieces of frosting speckling the house, and I decided that it was an authentic representation of snow rather than the breaking off/smudging of the frosting. Perspective. It’s all about perspective:

Elsa and Arendelle Gingerbread House | OneCraftyThing.com

It was rather difficult to pipe with the house all set up, so if I were to do this again, I would probably pipe the pieces flat and then put the house together to do the roof.

Sorry that I don’t have many process picture but it was hard to hold the camera in one hand and my sangria in the other… perspective and priorities, of course.

I do have a pretty decent aerial shot though, that shows one of my favorite parts of the scene, the “expanding” ice ring, made with melted blue candy (Ring Pops!), rock candy “crystallizing” the edges of the pool and then the blue (and white, which are a bit hard to see) Sixlets that I used to try to give the idea of expansion:

Elsa and Arendelle Gingerbread House | OneCraftyThing.com

And now onto Elsa.

I created the gumpaste Elsa after the party because she herself took quite a bit of time. It was a fun challenge because it was a different kind of 3D work than I’m used to. I looked at a few tutorials and some fondant Elsas on Pinterest for reference and all of it was hand sculpted (although molds might have been easier, especially for the body which is pretty standard). Here she is right-side beauty shot:

Elsa and Arendelle Gingerbread House | OneCraftyThing.com

And here is her left side: Elsa and Arendelle Gingerbread House | OneCraftyThing.com

All in all, I’d say the gumpaste was a little different than working with fondant in that it hardens quickly (which is good in this case). A few tips for making the Elsa figure:

  1. The best tutorial I found (and the one I referenced the most) was this one: Yungjung Cake, although my Elsa was a mix of many different ones that I found, this had some good directions.
  2. Make the body in parts. Lower half, torso, and then head. I tried to make the body all one piece and it wasn’t working at all.
  3. I used a toothpick for the body structure. It went through the whole body and up through the neck and gave the head a secure spot to sit.
  4. Use what you have on-hand. I was going to make custom snowflakes, but used some snowflake sprinkles instead to put in her hair.

All in all, I’m happy with the way it came out. It’s so fun to see it come together and hanging out with my friends and crafting is always fun. Can’t wait for next year’s get-together 🙂


Today I used:

A Frozen Bento: Anna of Arendelle

A Frozen Bento: Anna | OneCraftyThing.com

Today’s bento is all about Frozen’s Anna 🙂 It’s been a year since it came out and I still get an enthusiastic “ME!!!” from all three kiddos when I ask who wants to watch the movie. Their enthusiasm is catching, so today’s bento is all about Disney’s favorite little sister.
In today’s lunch


Main PBJ with carrot hair, cut with a peeler. It’s pretty hard to braid carrots, I’ll tell you, though, so I had to hold her hair down in a couple of places with some toothpicks (mainly the top). Anna’s eyes are white fondant and two hard blue candies we just got in a goodie bag from a party. I lined her eyes with black edible markers. Her mouth is fondant with a tad of pink food dye. Here is a tip on the fondant: let it dry completely before “gluing” them on to the bread (I used a bit of peanut butter), otherwise it will melt on the bread in the container. Nose and freckles made with edible marker.
Sides A carved Fuji apple and red grapes with a green “frozen” heart.
Also included but not pictured Yogurt


Today, I used:

A Frozen Bento: In Summer!!!

olaf

It’s the last week of school and the fervor for Frozen has only *minimally* died down here. We’re almost in summer and the kiddos can’t get out of winter 😉 So today, I made my last Frozen lunch of the (school) year, inspired by “In Summer,” the song by Olaf the snowman. If you’ve never seen it, DO SO. It’s hilarious.

If you still want to see more bentos, come back during summer! I’ll still be doing some for my kiddos who hang out at home for the summer — some really fun ones!

In today’s lunch:


Main Chicken salad sandwich in a whole grain white bread pocket. I used this awesome tutorial to improvise my pocket sandwich. All the outlines are made from nori, while the whites of the eyes and the tooth are made from some flattened pieces of bread I had left over from cutting off the crusts. Nose is a real carrot!

Sides Strawberry flower on blackberries with cheddar bee. I used nori for the black stripes on the bee and almond slivers for the wings. Also, green grapes.


Today I used:
 

A Frozen Bento: Sven

Sven

Will the Frozen mania ever stop? It’s been ZERO days since someone hasn’t sung a Frozen song, asked to see Frozen or thought a Frozen thought in this house. I am not against it, but instead ran with it for today’s lunch. Also my younger kiddo was so super sad that I only made the Elsa lunch for her sister that she asked me pleadingly for a lunch for her. So here it is, inspired by Frozen (and participating in Wendolonia’s 3 Tools, 4 Lunches series) Today’s lunch is all about Sven. The challenge with the 3 Tools, 4 Lunches was to use an Easy Lunch Box, the Ikea woodland cutters, and a edible markers. This is what I came up with!


Main Cheese sandwhich (Mozarella on whole grain white). Ok so the Ikea cutter is a moose. I know that. I believe, though, that there are certain little bits that make a reindeer silhouette different from a moose silhouette:

Problem 1: The Dewlap. The flappy thingy at a moose’s neck makes it look very moose-like, but a reindeer doesn’t have one. Solution: Cut it off.

Problem 2: The antlers on a moose look pretty even (or at least, on the moose cookie cutter). Solution: Push and prod the back antlers forward until the bread gives and stays so that the back antlers are higher than the front of the antlers.

And BOOM. Reindeer.

For details, I added some crust to the brown part of his brow (with a little hair cut into it) and used it to shape his eyebrow, which is just drawn on with black edible marker. His muzzle is also crust, with edible marker. His eye is a little piece of mozzarella, also colored with edible marker and accented with a white non-pareil for a highlight. The rest of the eye is just outlined in black edible marker. The white fur around his neck is also mozzarella.

Sides Mini marshmallows cut into snowflake shapes (just cuts straight into the marshmallow all around its circumference) and carrots!

Also Included but not Pictured Grapes and a yogurt


Today I used:

A Frozen Bento: Elsa

elsa

Catching up with some of my favorite shows last night, I was getting a bit restless for some creative time (watch shows/do something with my hands) and so today’s slightly complicated bento was born. I chose Elsa, the snow queen from Frozen because my kiddo, like every other kiddo under the age of 10 has been singing “Let it Go” for about six months straight now (I won’t even get into how we duet “Love is an Open Door.”) Anyhow, I have been wanting to do an Elsa lunch since Frozen came out, but Lunchbox Dad beat me to it, so I gotta give him credit for the great hair idea (he used Yummy Dough, though, while I used marzipan).

I must admit the hair and the eyes took the longest because the marzipan needed to be done in layers and the marshmallow is sticky to work with. It was fun to see her come together though. Next time, Anna 😀


Main PB&J sandwich, details drawn on with a foodwriter pen; eyes are cut marshmallows with blue M&Ms. The pupils are drawn on with the foodwriter, and the white highlights are just bits of marshmallow. Hair is marzipan, dyed with a little food coloring.
Sides Blueberries with snowflake shaped marshmallows (used a cherry blossom cutter on a marshmallow and then drew a snowflake on top) and snowflake sprinkles; green grapes on “crystal ice” food picks.
Also Included but not Pictured Applesauce, yogurt