I had in my mind what I wanted my Mother’s Day Gingerbread Shadow Box to be, but to actually have it come to fruition was so satisfying! It evolved a bit over the process, but I was very happy with it, and Mom just loved it!
I was actually inspired by a Gingerbread Shadow Box that I saw on Pinterest from Twigg Studios. It was a Christmas Shadow Box and it was absolutely beautiful! Aimee’s actually got a couple of them on her Blog that are just beautiful! She is so CREATIVE! Check out Aimee’s Shadow Box Here!
For Mom, It Had To Be A Garden
I knew I wanted to do a garden scene for mom. She has a green thumb and loves being outside with her flowers. So I wanted to create a place that she would look at and want to be. A place that was beautiful and peaceful, kind of like what we imagine Heaven will be like someday.
I also put a bit of me into it. I, like mom, love to be outside with my flowers, so I also wanted to add in an English cottage. I traveled to England back around 2008, and one of the things I had always loved and wanted to see was English cottages with gardens. Oh my goodness, they did not disappoint!
The Design of the Shadow Box
I knew I wanted to make the shadow box a bit deeper than Aimee’s, only because I wanted to make a path that would lead to the cottage, and I needed some depth to do this. I also knew I wanted a gate that would go from a rock fence like they have in England to the path.
I made the gate part of the frame of the shadow box. I thought about having the gate open, but thought it might create problems with the stability of the whole box, so I decided to leave it closed.
I went online and found illustrations of what I could use to put in the shadow box. I found a perfect pond, and wonderful cottage, and some other things.
I printed them off and cut around them, making sure the size was right for the shadow box. I took me a few times resizing before I got the size just right. You will need to do the same thing!
A Mock of Cardboard & A Paper Template
The first thing I did is to make a mock box out of cardboard. That way I could see how big it would be and adjust things from there. After that I made a paper template for the box, so I would have it to cut out the gingerbread pieces before baking.
I made the back the same size as a piece of printer paper, and made the rest around that. I thought that would be a perfect size.
The Gingerbread Recipe I Use
For my gingerbread, I used Teri Pringle Wood Butler’s recipe. This is my go-to recipe for designs like this. It’s stable and tastes really good. I like to brush it with egg wash when it comes out of the oven. It makes the exposed Gingerbread pretty and shiny.
I make my Gingerbread the day before I bake it, and let it chill overnight. Then after my pieces are cut out, I chill it again before baking.
Time To Bake All Of The Pieces
After cutting out my shadow box pieces, I use a ruler to square them up before chilling and baking. This helps ensure they are as square as possible, and they glue together better.
I cut out my cookies that will go inside the shadow box.
I ALWAY’S make pieces I don’t wind up using. In this case, I wanted to make a cookie with a mom and 3 girls around her (since there are 3 girls in my family). I wanted to put them in the garden. I found a great pic, but the shadow box would have been too crowded if I would have included that cookie, so I wound up leaving it off.
I always make extra’s of the cookies. That way if I mess one up, I’ve got another one ready to go!
For this design, I was going to put the pond and bridge on a cookie together, but I wound up making the bridge a Royal Icing Transfer. I’ll talk about that further down when I get to the decorating.
Once everything is cut, I bake all of my pieces.
Assemble The Bottom Of The Shadow Box
Once it’s all baked, it’s time to assemble the bottom portion of the shadow box. If you decide to decorate the sides, be sure to decorate before assembling.
Microplane and trim all the edges of the side pieces if needed before gluing them to the back of the box. Set the sides back a bit from the edges, to get the “shadow box” effect.
Add The Supports To Hold Up The Hill
At this point, trim the hill and the supports to make sure they fit perfect before gluing. I had to trim quite a bit on the supports and the hill, so you may have to as well.
Place the front frame on without gluing just to see that everything looks good, and to make sure the frame will fit when it’s time to glue it on. You will be working on the inside for a while, so it’s way too early to glue the frame on.
Time To Flood & Decorate The Hill
Place the photo of the pond and bridge where you want it. Use the scribe to score holes as a guide for where to flood the water, the path, and the green grass space.
Once the holes are added, use the scribe tool to sketch on top of the gingerbread to give yourself guides for where to flood.
Flood the whole hill with beige for the path, white for the pond, and green for the rest.
The House Cookie
To flood the house, I used a peachy beige color for the walls and both chimney’s. Then I used white for the roof. I used a thicker white Royal Icing at the edges of the roof in front to give extra thickness and dimension.
The Cherry Blossom Tree
I decided not to flood the whole cherry blossom tree. I used a thicker RI and piped branches, then just added pink specks for the cherry blossoms.
The Frame
For the Frame, I used an off-white thick flood consistency for the rocks on the front rock fence/wall. I knew I was going to paint the rocks a mixture of grays and beiges, so I figured off-white was a great base color.
I painted the details of the RI with food gel color. I add a bit of water to some to dilute, and with others I just dab my brush on a paper towel so there won’t be so much color.
Unfortunately, I got a bit of piping done on the hill, then cracked it picking it up to put it in the dehydrator. I had to re-do the whole piece. Ugggg!!! Lol! It happens!
I used an edible black marker to draw on the gate hinges. You can get Edible Markers Here!
I decided to pipe the sky area white, and add my blue in so that I could use more colors. I added some trees on the back of the hillside, and some Royal Icing Transfer clouds.
Gluing in The Hill
Once the sky is finished being decorated, and the hill is decorated around the pond and the pathway to the house, then you are ready to add the other cookies, It’s now time to glue the hill in.
Make sure your cottage and cherry tree are decorated before adding, then glue them in and add the other elements and details.
I really wished I had made some slopes on the hillside, instead of making it a straight horizon. Maybe next-time! To prop up the cherry tree and house and make sure they have the dimension they need for the shadow box, I made little rounds and stacked them up, gluing them together with royal icing. I glued the tree and house to those.
Add The Details
This is where you can just get as creative as you like. From here on out, the rest of the details are piped on with Royal Icing. Some of them are RI transfers, such as the bridge, green archway, and the greenery in front of the stone pathway .
It’s a bit hard to tell in the pic, but the bridge is basically 3D. The transfer is 3 pieces. The 2 sides, and the bottom going across. It was VERY delicate, and I was so worried I would break it when I added it, but I got it in, and was VERY happy with it. YAY!!
I was running a bit late to have this ready for mom, so unfortunately I stopped taking pics and filming at this point. Sorry about that! I had no idea I would have a Blog when I made it.
On the pathway to the left of the house , I added a RI transfer archway of vine. I added a stone pathway up to the front door, and added all of the flowers etc.
This is the fun part! Get creative and make it your own!
The very last thing I did was add the writing on the front frame, and then glue it on. I decided it needed some RI transfer flowers, so I added those too.
I was very pleased with it, and Mom LOVED it! I really enjoyed doing it, and I want to thank Aimee for the inspiration and for sharing her beautiful shadow box creations!
Free Template
I hope you enjoy it! If you would like a free template, I have provided one here. You can design anything you want with this template! Add what you like to the inside to make it for anyspecial event, or holiday! You can truly make it WHATEVER you would like!
Thanks so much!
God Bless You and Happy Baking & Decorating!
Teesa
