Cardboard Gingerbread House Template

Cardboard house pieces and measurements

The default cardboard house is 6 in15.2 cm wide, 4.5 in11.4 cm deep and has 4 in10.2 cm walls, cut from cardboard 3 mm thick. The roof is one piece, 9 in22.8 cm from eave to eave, with a dashed line across the middle where it folds.

Measure your cardboard before you print and enter the real thickness under Customize size. Corrugated board from a shipping box is often 3 to 4 mm; the card of a cereal box is under 1 mm. The side walls are shorter than the house is deep by twice that number.

How to use the cardboard template

1. Print at 100% and check that the line on each sheet measures 2 in (5 cm on A4).
2. Cut out the paper patterns and trace them onto the cardboard. Place the roof so its fold line runs along the flutes, the ridges inside corrugated board, because it folds more cleanly that way.
3. Cut on a cutting mat with a sharp craft knife and a metal ruler. Several light passes cut cleaner than one hard one.
4. Score the dashed line on the roof with the back of the knife or an empty ballpoint pen, without cutting through, then fold.

How to put a cardboard gingerbread house together

Hot glue sets in seconds, so you can hold each wall in place instead of propping it up. Glue on the outside of a joint shows, so run the bead along the inside edge.

1. Print the template at 100% (Actual size) and check that the line on each sheet measures exactly 2 in. Cut out the paper pieces.
2. Trace the pieces onto cardboard 3 mm thick and cut them out with a craft knife on a cutting mat, using a metal ruler for the straight edges.
3. Run hot glue along the bottom and side edges of the front wall and one side wall. Stand them on the board at a right angle, with the end of the side wall tucked behind the front wall.
4. Add the second side wall, then the back wall. The side walls fit between the front and back walls, so the house measures exactly 6 in by 4.5 in on the outside.
5. Score the dashed line across the roof with the back of a knife, without cutting through, and fold the roof along it. Glue it onto the sloped edges of the front and back walls and the tops of the side walls.
6. Put the chimney together as a box on the work surface: the front and back pieces outside, the short side between them on the uphill end. When it has set, glue it onto the right side of the roof. The slanted bottom edges match the roof pitch.
7. Glue the door to one side of the opening so it stands slightly open.
8. Paint the "icing": white dimensional (puffy) paint gives raised lines along the roof edges and around the windows.

What you'll need

Paint instead of icing

White puffy paint makes the icing on a cardboard house. It dries as a raised line, so it looks piped along the roof edges, around the windows and on the corners.

Brown kraft cardboard already looks like baked dough. If yours is printed or white, paint it a warm brown first and let it dry before the white lines go on.

Lighting a cardboard house

The windows and the door are already cut out, which makes a cardboard house a good lantern. Slide a string of battery LED lights in through the back before you glue on the roof, with the battery box where you can reach it.

Tape tracing paper or baking parchment behind the windows from inside: the light comes through soft and you don't see the bulbs.

FAQ