Christmas lover transforms her home - into a giant gingerbread house
A Christmas lover has transformed her home - into a giant gingerbread house.
Carmen Croxall, 34, spent two weeks decorating the front of her rented home in Exeter, Devon.
And she says the end result is "next level" - having decorated the property several times in the last 18 months.
The latest design is complete with biscuit window frames, candy canes and gingerbread men.
And Carmen, who runs a props business, says around 70 percent of the house is made from recycled materials.
The fake brickwork is made from water-resistant MDF and the chocolates are old milk cartons covered in cellophane.
Her lollipop sticks are made from wooden dowel offcuts and an old drainage pipe and the pink icing is fabric leftover from a previous project and ball pit balls.
Mum-of-two Carmen, owner of the Prop Factory, finished the house over the weekend.
And although the wet weather has proved to be a big test to how durable her decorations are, she believes the gingerbread house this year is her best project yet.
She said: "I love decorating my house!
"It all started in 2020 - I had an events company and had dressed events for eight years but, after nine months of not doing it, I had a huge void.
"At the same time, we changed our business and started selling products.
"I'd just sold my house and was due to move out too, so those three things led to my first crazy transformation.
"My new landlord said I could decorate so I did my whole house for Halloween and last Christmas, I did a pink kitsch theme with a festive Tyrannosaurus Rex outside.
"Now, I've gone next level!"
Carmen says the project was relatively inexpensive, putting her biggest outlay at £300 for the Velcro.
She said: "I didn't spend too much as I managed to scrounge a lot from my work.
"The bricks are damaged MDF that we couldn't use; the lollipop sticks are wooden dowel off cuts and an old drain pipe.
"The two main costs were the Velcro at £300 and wadding which made the snow at £90, plus a few new sheets of MDF.
"The snow is made from wadding.
"I put colourful cellophane over old milk cartons for the Quality Street chocolates but had to add clear cellophane over the top as the colourful sheets leaked in the rain.
"It's all stuck on with very heavy duty velcro - each brick has enough velcro to hold up 28kg!
"I tested this theory for a few months prior to doing this and found it worked if the brick work behind them didn't get wet.
"I had to cover the whole house so water couldn't get to the real bricks, and I also used an air compressed staple gun to make a lattice between bricks.
"It went from an idea to a finished thing in just two weeks. I was in this zone where I was so focused on finishing it that I didn't even appreciate it until it was done.
"I love it, I'm really happy with how it looks - but now that it's done, I'm already thinking about what I can do next!"
Carmen added that she's not heard from her landlord - usually a good sign - and her neighbours seem happy.
"I've emailed my landlord pictures and told him what I've done. He hasn't replied so normally that means he is fine," she said.
"I think he just likes peace and quiet.
"My neighbours seem to be happy! They said they they liked it."
And, as for her kids' reactions, she said: "I have a 13-year-old who isn't impressed at all, and my three-year-old doesn't seem that phased. I think he might be used to it!
Carmen Croxall, 34, spent two weeks decorating the front of her rented home in Exeter, Devon.
And she says the end result is "next level" - having decorated the property several times in the last 18 months.
The latest design is complete with biscuit window frames, candy canes and gingerbread men.
And Carmen, who runs a props business, says around 70 percent of the house is made from recycled materials.
The fake brickwork is made from water-resistant MDF and the chocolates are old milk cartons covered in cellophane.
Her lollipop sticks are made from wooden dowel offcuts and an old drainage pipe and the pink icing is fabric leftover from a previous project and ball pit balls.
Mum-of-two Carmen, owner of the Prop Factory, finished the house over the weekend.
And although the wet weather has proved to be a big test to how durable her decorations are, she believes the gingerbread house this year is her best project yet.
She said: "I love decorating my house!
"It all started in 2020 - I had an events company and had dressed events for eight years but, after nine months of not doing it, I had a huge void.
"At the same time, we changed our business and started selling products.
"I'd just sold my house and was due to move out too, so those three things led to my first crazy transformation.
"My new landlord said I could decorate so I did my whole house for Halloween and last Christmas, I did a pink kitsch theme with a festive Tyrannosaurus Rex outside.
"Now, I've gone next level!"
Carmen says the project was relatively inexpensive, putting her biggest outlay at £300 for the Velcro.
She said: "I didn't spend too much as I managed to scrounge a lot from my work.
"The bricks are damaged MDF that we couldn't use; the lollipop sticks are wooden dowel off cuts and an old drain pipe.
"The two main costs were the Velcro at £300 and wadding which made the snow at £90, plus a few new sheets of MDF.
"The snow is made from wadding.
"I put colourful cellophane over old milk cartons for the Quality Street chocolates but had to add clear cellophane over the top as the colourful sheets leaked in the rain.
"It's all stuck on with very heavy duty velcro - each brick has enough velcro to hold up 28kg!
"I tested this theory for a few months prior to doing this and found it worked if the brick work behind them didn't get wet.
"I had to cover the whole house so water couldn't get to the real bricks, and I also used an air compressed staple gun to make a lattice between bricks.
"It went from an idea to a finished thing in just two weeks. I was in this zone where I was so focused on finishing it that I didn't even appreciate it until it was done.
"I love it, I'm really happy with how it looks - but now that it's done, I'm already thinking about what I can do next!"
Carmen added that she's not heard from her landlord - usually a good sign - and her neighbours seem happy.
"I've emailed my landlord pictures and told him what I've done. He hasn't replied so normally that means he is fine," she said.
"I think he just likes peace and quiet.
"My neighbours seem to be happy! They said they they liked it."
And, as for her kids' reactions, she said: "I have a 13-year-old who isn't impressed at all, and my three-year-old doesn't seem that phased. I think he might be used to it!
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FunTranscript
00:00 I'm Carmen and I have turned my house into a life-sized gingerbread house.
00:18 To do that I made, first of all I made loads of kind of MDF bricks, painted them with wood
00:32 stain, bit of a sponge, kind of made that gingerbread texture and then I covered the
00:36 whole house in bricks so that was like the first stage.
00:52 And then I started making like kind of 3D sweets, you know, out of like milk cartons
00:57 and old ball pit balls and stuff, lots of recycled materials.
01:10 Cost of forging, kind of buy all the equipment so I used what I had and I've added all the
01:15 sweets which I managed to make at my work which is quite fortunate because I've got
01:18 access to kind of machines that I can use.
01:31 It started two weeks ago, just got really out of control and then I was in this kind
01:37 of like working trance where I just worked and worked and worked and then at the end
01:42 of it I kind of looked back and I was like oh my goodness what have I done.
01:46 I just did it for a bit of fun really.
01:49 My neighbours are, they're happy about it, one of my neighbours was like oh it's lovely,
01:53 it's really creative but you know I'll see what they say in like a couple of weeks when
01:57 you know all people are coming down having a look and stuff.
02:01 Maybe they won't like it as much.
02:11 So because my house is quite small when I'm in the kitchen I can just hear people chatting
02:16 about it outside, like just groups of people taking pictures and stuff and I hear like
02:20 kind of kids going past and whenever I go out there's cars slowing down so it definitely
02:25 gets noticed.
02:26 I mean obviously it sticks out quite a lot.
02:31 I am really proud.
02:33 It's probably one of the best things I've ever done kind of creatively I guess which
02:38 is good and bad because I feel like that's it, I've reached the peak now.
02:43 Worries me a little bit what I could do next because I feel like whatever I do next isn't
02:47 going to be as good because this is like literally the best thing I've ever done and everyone
02:53 can see it and it's yeah it's just really nice really.
02:56 I'm proud.