Cardboard Village - Cereal box houses

 So this is a little project that we did a while back over Christmas break.  

We made our own little winter village.  

This was a great afternoon project for the kids.  It does take a little time and for the most part I did most of the assembling of the houses and the kids painted and decorated them. 

This is how we made them.  

(I didn't take any picture while we made them but it's pretty easy to figure out by looking at the finished houses.) 

Supplies needed:

cardboard - cereal boxes, any small cardboard box

scissors

tape

and any supplies to decorate

paint, markers, patterned paper, fabric, washi tape...

 We pretty much made all of our houses out of cut up cereal boxes, except for one house which we made out of a powered sugar box.
1. I cut long strips and folded it into a square or rectangular box. I made the inside of the cereal box the outside of the houses so that it was a little more of a clean slate to work with, but any way works. It will open on top and bottom.
2. Tape it on the inside.  I knew we weren't keeping them too long so I didn't get too crazy with the tape.  The kids were helping at this point with the taping.  They LOVE tape.
3. Now cut the roof line.  Two ends should have the peak of the roof and two sides should be cut down for the sides of the house.
4. Tape from the inside.
5. We also added little chimney.  Again make a square and tape.  Cut to fit roof line.
6. Tape.  Done!

You can make them different shapes and sizes.  I was going to add little shutters for the windows and cut open the doors, but the kids wanted to jump into the painting.

Oh and I can't forget Ella's idea about putting a cotton ball in the chimney for smoke.  

I want to do this again and decorate my own.