My Life: Gingerbread House Craft

My 3yo daughter really wanted to make a gingerbread house, and this seemed like a great alternative to messing around with frosting, plus it'll last all season! The whole craft only took about an hour and was really hands on for my daughter.

These are the supplies I used: 2 cereal boxes, brown and white construction paper, a glue stick, scissors, crayons and lots of stickers.

After dismantling the cereal boxes, I ended up with 4 large panels, the front and back from each box. You should end up with 5 cardboard pieces: 4 walls and the roof.

From one panel, I cut out 2 square-ish shapes that would be the sides. From the second, I mostly just trimmed the sides, folded it in half and made the roof. The last 2 panels made the front and back of the house. I traced the side panel and roof angle to make sure everything was about the same size.

Front of the house

All 5 house pieces

I then used the glue stick to adhere the construction paper to the cardboard.

The 2 house sides

I did the 2 smallest pieces first, so that my daughter could start decorating right away. I just let her go to town with the stickers and crayons, although she did want me to decorate one side with her. :)

All the finished pieces

Once everything was decorated, I taped the wrong sides of the walls together to make a square. I then flipped it onto the roof and taped that down from the inside too. (I free-handed the whole thing, so it isn't squared. Next time, I'll use my paper cutter to make neater edges.)

Inside the house

My completely "unsquared" sides

I cut some wavy edge pieces out of the white construction paper for the "icing." I taped the eaves sides onto the edge of the roof without overlapping it. I taped the top corner together for a cute finished look. The sides are overlapped, so only half the edging peeks out.