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Artist turns parents' home into gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel

Christine McConnell, the artist who transformed her parents' home into a creepy monster mansion for Halloween, has done it again.
/ Source: TODAY

Looks like someone has given Clark Griswold a run for his money.

Christine McConnell, the artist/photographer/baker who transformed her parents' home into a creepy monster mansion for Halloween, has done it again. This time, she created a version of the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel.

“I've been a lifelong fan of the story and thought since gingerbread houses are so big this time of year, it could be a neat combination,” she told TODAY.com. In a project that took seven 15-hour days and almost $700 to complete, it truly is something out of a fairy tale.

McConnell began by mocking up the idea in Photoshop to see how it could look. When it came time to begin the decorating, she started with what she thought would be a simple task: using nylon rope to create the icing on the roof, although she says it turned out to be the trickiest part.

“I used twist ties to attach all the measured rope to one another and weighted it with two heavy boards which rest down the side of the roof you don't see,” she said. “If I were to do it again, I'd look for wider and cheaper rope and make the spaces between them larger.”

The rest of the decorations were pretty easy, though, she said.

“I cut and painted all the pieces, sewed all the outfits for the photo shoot and enlisted the help of my favorite nieces to play Hansel and Gretel.”

The result was a series of popular Instagram photos, one of which received over 21K likes as of Wednesday morning. But it wasn't all just for the pictures.

“My parents have a big Christmas party at the house every year, so going overboard was somewhat forgivable,” she said.

As for the reaction from her parents, she said her mom loves it — “although she, like most moms, likes everything I do even if it's terrible,” McConnell joked. “My dad, who's usually a bit of a Grinch, likes it so much he wants to keep it up after Christmas, which is the highest compliment imaginable.”

And as for neighbors, she says people have been stopping by and taking pictures of the place, which her family thinks is super neat.