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Imagine driving through Alphington in Exeter on your way to work and glancing out of your window to see a giant gingerbread house amongst the terraced houses. Well that's what Carmen our Director has been working solidly on for the past month and it hasn't gone unnoticed. 

Her rented two bed terrace has become an internet sensation after sharing a sneak peek drive by video on Tik Tok and lots more eye-catching content from her personal @clashcreativehome account. It reached over 2.3 Million views and since then has been a TV and Radio hit, with Radio Exe being the first to do a interview from the house on their morning show. This was then quickly followed by BBC Radio Devon, Heart Radio with Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston, Radio5 Live and she is scheduled for Kbear104.1...in Alaska!

The Sun very amusingly wrote an article about her landlord not knowing about the latest project to cover his house, which added a rather funny twist. However we can confirm he is aware and happy for Carmen to decorate it. The house as explained by Carmen on a few reels through her Clashcreative home and ThePropFactory Instagram accounts is made from seven water resistant sheets of 8x4 2D MDF bricks, this was painted with gingerbread texture and all secured individually by hand using velcro (65 meters of velcro to be exact!). All the yummy giant sweets you can see were all printed in house at The Prop Factory HQ.

The icing lining the bricks, sweets and biscuits is made from some white fabric Carmen recycled from her old Halloween ceiling decoration - we're all about sustainability here :) The waterproofing element took some thinking about, especially with the winter weather hitting us hard. The MDF is triple painted with exterior varnish after printing and all bricks have stayed firmly throughout the downpours. Interestingly the only thing to let her down was the shop bought cellophane wrap which covered milk bottles to create giant 'quality street' style sweets. The rain made the colour run and leak turning the wadding used to create a bed of snow on the floor into rainbow snow. 

The idea for the gingerbread house stemmed from Carmen decorating her front door for Christmas. She planned to cover the PVC door in giant biscuits and sweets as an alternative to a Christmas Wreath. Most of her followers' comments have been "Where can I get those sweets from?" The answer is from The Prop Factory's very creative Etsy, Ebay or Web store. Here you'll not only find unique giant props and signs for Christmas but another 25 themes from wonderland to savoury food. The door escalated quickly and Carmen never does anything by half; so after a week of prep and a week of installation along with help from friends and family the famous gingerbread house was born along with Carmen's new nickname the 'Gingerbread Lady'.  

Amongst the radio interviews the house has had a constant flow of traffic and photographs taken from drive bys. Devon live reported live (ha!) and ventured into the Carmens gingerbread house soon to find it was just as quirkily decorated inside! This soon became the perfect add-on to her television interviews with ITV Westcountry News, BBC National Breakfast and BBC Spotlight. Victoria Graham of BBC Spotlight was as she said 'speechless' by the end of the interview. 



I think my favourite part of the house has to be the Bourbon Biscuit window sills lining both the upstairs windows. They look good enough to eat and many passers by and Facebook followers have asked that question, but the answer is no this house is purely decorative and not edible - maybe next next hey!

Carmen has put some suggestions out that this house may now have to dress for every seasonal occasion so please stay tuned for what's to come!