Ginger Bread Cookie Ornaments
How to Paint Realistic Looking Ginger Bread Ornaments
by Dolores Swaldi [c] 2005
www.dollyandernieceramics.com

The holidays are fast approaching so we thought we would do an article on something related to this time of year. We decided to share our secret on how we make our ceramic ginger bread items look like they had just come out of the oven. But before we do; I have to tell you this is top secret information, it took us many, many, many times experimenting with techniques and colors to come up with the perfect combination that makes our items look good enough to eat. But since we love our customers so much we have decided to remove this technique from the vault and share it with all of you.

Did we pique your interest yet? OK here is the technique we use. It is nothing very hard to do, and it is actually very easy to complete. There are very few steps involved, three to be exact, but they must be completed in this order for them to turn out simply delicious looking.

1. Paint your item with French vanilla stain.
2. Antique the item with pecan sparkle translucent stain. (Oil based antiquing stain that cleans with water and soap)
3. For the final step you dry brush the ginger bread sections with butterscotch.

After this we color all accents with bright vibrant colors. We use bright reds, greens, yellows for the gum drops. Then we use other bright colors for the icing outlines, and other elements we would like to highlight on our ginger bread piece.

When completed this is what our ornament looks like.



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