Greeting Card Village - Paper house ornaments

Ever since I made made the milk carton box from a greeting card I've wanted to make some little houses from greeting cards. It occurred to me that I could use the colourful front of the card for the walls and the white back of the card for the roof. Or the other way around.

I kept the design for the first one very basic because I just wanted to get a feel for the proportions. I used a 4 inch by 6 inch greeting card to make a house that was 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.75 inches. Using my quilt ruler and a seam ripper I scored all the lines I wanted to fold and then cut the house from the card.



I creased the house and added a piece of masking tape to the end of one of the free walls. (If you are trying to read the dimensions scroll to the bottom of this page where I have a diagram that I drew after I had experimented a little.)



Then I folded the two ends to the middle and pressed the other end wall into the masking tape.



I folded and glued the bottom of the house together.



Then I folded the roof and held the two halves together with a bit of masking tape.



Then I cut the roof (2.25 x 2.5 inches) from the back of the card. (And immediately regretted that I wrote on it in such away that some ink will be seen when the house is above eye level.) I folded and knotted my hanging string and used a needle and thread to draw the folded end of the string from the inside to the outside of the roof.



I applied double sided tape to the top of the house, centred the white roof on the house and pressed it in place.





The house looked a little lonely, and I had the two pieces left from the front of the card, so I quickly made a milk cartonish building from the back of the card. (The side walls on this house are almost 2 inches tall.) Then I squared off the left over pieces from the front of the card and applied them to the roof. (If I had made the roof without the overhang it might look more like a grain elevator.)



I was happy with the proportions of the little house but I prefer houses that have a more substantial roof so I started over again with a second 4 x 6 inch greeting card.



Usually I would just score the lines on the card but I drew them, thinking that a photo could serve as a pattern. However, by the time I reduced the photo down to blog size the dimensions were illegible. Having learned my lesson from the first house I didn't use any ink on the roof.



This time I scored and creased, but did not cut, along the sloped roof lines.



I put the walls and base together the same way as the first house.





Then I folded along the roof slope lines to make flaps on either sides of the gables.



I applied glue to the roof flaps and then taped the roof ridge. I added the hanging thread to the white roof and glued the overlaps at the peaks of the gables.



Then I trimmed the corners from the overhangs ...



... fastened the white roof to the house and added it to the village.



I liked this roof much better so I replace the one on the red house. This time I trimmed the triangles from the corners first...



... and I used some scalloped edge scissors.



Next I made a little white house with a blue coloured roof. Then I wanted to make a white house with a coloured roof and openings for a door and windows. I wanted the same colour inside the house as on the roof but I couldn't find one card large enough. I could have used two similarly coloured cards, but decided to use an orange report cover instead.



Here are the diagrams that show the dimensions I used to make these houses from a 4 x 6 inch greeting card. The 1 + 1/8 inches for the interior roofs is a bit generous so I trimmed them to the correct size before I glued them to the flaps. All of the small houses have side walls that are one inch tall but this size greeting card can accommodate side walls up to about 2 inches tall. I cut all the lines that are highlighted in pink and folded all the lines that are highlighted in yellow.



This is the diagram I used for the roof with the deep trim. Again I cut all the lines that are highlighted in pink and folded all the ones that are highlighted in yellow.



After I had made these five houses I decided to try my hand at a birdhouse from greeting cards. Click on the photo below to view that tutorial.





Pinwheel 2010