gingerbread calendar
Our friend the little gingerbread man needs to make it home before Christmas day, but he’s got a long way to go and many stops on the way! Will he get back in time?
Our friend the little gingerbread man needs to make it home before Christmas day, but he’s got a long way to go and many stops on the way! Will he get back in time?
On a weekend last October, I visited my sister’s home in the North Carolina mountains. I was inspired by the chilly weather and storybook nature of her house and wanted to draw a gingerbread scene. It quickly evolved into an Advent calendar with a winding road and a gingerbread man trying to get home for Christmas. He travels through the mountains, finds a castle, and he even hops on a sail boat for a couple days!
It turned out to be quite an involved project and I pulled my husband down with me to make 35 calendars for family and friends. The scene was drawn on the iPad in Procreate, printed at Spoonflower and has clear plastic pockets and a scrap leather gingerbread man.
I started off this project like I do all of them, with a color palette. In the beginning I had set out for bright and bold colors, but kept coming back to these muted sugar coated, spicy tones.
I drew each element of the calendar adventure in the iPad. Originally I had the days progressing like in the way a normal calendar does. A friend of mine suggested I have the numbers curve around with a winding road. I liked the flow of the picture much better this way. I loved adding in the mountain tunnel, the gingerbread fortress, the little boat on the river where he sets sail for a few days. I began imagining how much fun it would be to go on a gingerbread adventure. Of course our friend had to stop by at the stores in town to grab some Christmas treats before returning home to his family.
The process of assembling the calendars was long. I had to cut 175 strips of 1” wide plastic for the clear pockets. I also cut 35 copies of wooden dowels, red ribbons, and hand cut leather gingerbread men. Each calendar had a red and white striped backing, and I went through 4 spools of thread. It took about 6 weeks working evenings and weekends to get them ready for Christmas. I was on my own gingerbread adventure and by the end, I didn’t want to touch my sewing machine for a few weeks. The final product turned out great and was a huge hit under the tree!
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