Cardboard Gingerbread House Tutorial

Every two weeks a dear friend and I get together to homeschool a religion class and a craft.  She teaches the religion then I take care of the craft.  Anyway, this past week I decided to make cardboard Gingerbread houses that they could decorate.  You could also call it a Christmas house if gingerbread house makes them sound edible.

Here's what you'll need:

Cardboard
Hot glue and gun
Craft knife and a surface to cut on like a self healing mat
Or you could use scissors
Pencil
Ruler

1. All you have to do is mark your lines on the card board where you're going to cut.
2. Cut them out with whichever method you choose.
3. Glue
4. Decorate
So you'll need 1 x Base, 2 x Roof, 2 x square sides, 2 x Pointy sides.

Here are the measurements:
Base: 4" x 4"

Square Sides: 3"x 3".  The windows are 1" x 1".

Pointy Sides:  It's a 3"x 3" square but to add the point you need to find the middle, then make a mark 1" up.  From that mark draw a line to one of the corners of the square.  I hope that makes sense. You'll be able see my lines in one of the following pictures (Ignore the mark that says 3.5" in red. I don't know why I wrote that). Oh and I just cut a little window and door in one piece as you can see.  No method or measuring, just wherever you want.

Roof: 2.5" x 3"

Then start gluing one side at at time.

And Voila:

Make a bunch to decorate.  I usually plan for 9 kids to craft.

 You can decorate using markers, puff paint or glue on pom poms, beads, sequins, etc. I wanted to use a mock icing.

Mock Icing: 2 parts glue, 1 part white paint and 1.5 parts flour.  Then I put a dollop into the corner of a ziploc bag, cut a teeny tiny corner off the bag.  To make 7 small Ziploc baggies I used 1/2 cup glue, 1/4 paint, and approx 1/3 cup flour or to pipe-able consistency.

I had the kids "pipe" it on while adding beads.  I found that you need to use a good amount when adding beads otherwise the next day the beads will fall off easily.   A 3 year old was able to use the mock icing as well.

Here are all the finished houses.  They had a lot of fun.

Hope you will too. 

Blessings,

Christina