Turn a holiday gingerbread house into a love shack gingerbread house for Valentine's Day using colorful candies like conversation hearts and llama lollipops!
I was provided product samples free of charge from Oriental Trading in exchange for my honest opinion. No other compensation was provided for this post.
Most years, I like to keep a little bit of that Christmas magic around as long as possible after the holidays. But this year, it was different. We packed up our holiday decorations the day after Christmas. My husband came down with a stomach bug and was sick in bed on Christmas Day. I still got to celebrate with my family, but felt bad leaving my husband behind. A few days later, I ended up sick, too. I was over it.
And when I'm over something, I like to move on as soon as possible. So it wasn't any surprise that I started working on Valentine's Day projects before the ball even dropped in Times Square. I know it might seem kind of early to start talking about Valentine's Day, but believe it or not, it's almost a month away! I also wanted to make sure that I shared this project early enough so you could still get your hands on a gingerbread house!
This year is the first year that I've had luck building a gingerbread house - or rather, train - that didn't cave in on itself. Then, I found a gingerbread house kit with the house already built! Score! So I decided to make a gingerbread "love shack" for Valentine's Day. In a way, it still allows me to keep a part of the holidays going, but with a cute Valentine's Day twist.
So with the house already built for me, all I had to do was decorate it! You can't have Valentine's Day without candy, so I gathered supplies from Oriental Trading. I got a large bag of conversation hearts to use. They're my favorite Valentine's Day candy and my gingerbread house is covered with them! The roof is tiled with conversation hearts and they decorate the sides of the house, as well.
I made a door with Valentine's Day M&M's and added some cute llama lollipops. I also picked out red and purple candies from the ones included in the gingerbread kit. They helped to create a path in front of the door. And on the back of the house, a message of love is written in icing.
SUPPLIES
- Gingerbread house kit, including purple and red gumdrops and mini candies
- Conversation hearts
- Valentine's Day Milk Chocolate M&M's
- M&M Minis
- Lil’ Llama Frosted Suckers
STEPS
- Assemble your gingerbread house if it's not already assembled for you. Allow the icing to dry completely before decorating.
- Begin adding conversation hearts to the roof. Make sure they're spaced as evenly as possible on each side. Add a row of hearts down the middle of the roof as well.
- Next, create a door with icing. Line the door with Valentine's Day M&M's, using an M&M Mini for a doorknob.
- Cut the stick off of two llama lollipops. Pipe icing onto the back of each llama and position them on each side of the door.
- Use purple and red gumdrops to outline a path in front of the door. Add icing inside the path and cover with purple and red mini candies.
- Line the top of the house with conversation hearts.
- Create windows on each side of the house. Add conversation hearts around the windows.
- On of the back of house, if desired, pipe the word "love."
- Add another llama lollipop and line the top of the house with conversation hearts.
- Allow icing to dry completely and display.
My icing skills aren't the best, but I think my little love shack turned out pretty cute! Are you ready to create your own gingerbread love shack for Valentine's Day? This would make a fun snow day project for the kiddos while they're stuck indoors!
Shop for all of the candy you'll need to complete this project on Oriental Trading! They've got a great selection of Valentine's Day candy to choose from.
Did you make this Valentine's Day Love Shack Gingerbread House project? Share it on social media using the hashtag #holokahome. Don’t forget to tag me @holokahome!
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