Fauve Gingerbread Church Tree Topper

"Peace, Good will towards man.

       I have decided to decorate one of my Christmas trees with cotton batting homes and churches. This will be my summer project. Perhaps I will be able to complete enough of these little structures to turn the tree into an entire village? (We shall see, if time permits.) 

       To top off my tree, I recycled a small wooden music box. I payed $3.00 for this charming little church in a resale shop. Often I see discarded items such as this these and wonder how can I transform them into something more appealing? It's seems so wasteful to just toss something with that much detailing on it.

       Although the music box was broken the church still had all of it's green, tinted glass windows intact; plus a very cute, little steeple. It's sturdy wooden form also made it a perfect object to cover with cotton batting. I would not need to reinforce it's walls to prevent the glue from warping the church structure and with the removal of the music box, there should be plenty of room for top tree branches to fit inside!

       So I gave it a try and here is what it looks like now. I think it will make a fine tree topper!

More Fauve Gingerbread for The Christmas Tree:

• Gingerbread clay recipe for ornaments from the imagination tree 
• Gingerbread igloo - with an Eskimo on skies!
• I adore this gingerbread carousel - but if I put all that work into it, I'm not going to eat it!
• Old-Fashioned Gingerbread Ideas
• Paper village patterns and links
• Gingerbread Recipe & Printable House Template
• Gingerbread house treat box with free printable
  

I purchased a small broken music box at a resale shop. I thought it would need just a bit of sprucing up before topping off one of my Christmas trees with it. Left, this old music box was manufactured in China. Center I removed it's base so that it could be neatly snuggled inside the tree branches of a Christmas tree. Right, here you can see the old music box inside. I removed it to make room for branches.

Left, I prepared the cotton balls by unraveling them. Center, the surface of the church was quite clean, so I began to glue my first layer of cotton batting to it's surface walls. Originally I thought I might paint the roof, steeple, doors and windows. However, I changed my mind quickly as I worked; the little church began to look like gingerbread and I found this very appealing. Right, here you can see the church is almost finished; all it needs now it just a few added touches, a couple of  bottle brush wreaths and a cross at the top of the steeple.

Here is the completed project, I'm very pleased with the results and I can't wait to nestle the
 little fauve gingerbread church at the top of my Christmas tree this year!