Make a Cardboard Gingerbread Dollhouse

Make an adorable gingerbread dollhouse for dolls! A few years ago, we made a pumpkin dollhouse for Janie’s Calico Critters. Since then I have been wanting to make the Calico Critters a gingerbread house, and this year we finally got it done!

We are so happy with how it turned out. And don’t be intimidated. This project is really quite easy. It’s just a shoebox with a roofline built from some extra cardboard. Then we added paint, pipe cleaners, stickers, and a few other decorations. Truly so easy, and fun for holiday pretend play!

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The inside of the gingerbread house is a cute two-story cottage.

We added a piece of felt in front of the house to extend the playing space. This worked really well. We could have used a larger box for our gingerbread house, but honestly it’s hard for little hands to set up furniture and accessories inside a deep house. Things get knocked over! It’s much easier to play in an open space, but fun to still have the walls of the house.

The gingerbread house looks cute all on its own. Even if you don’t make it into a dollhouse, it’s fun to display!

Supplies Needed:

• Shoebox
• Extra cardboard box to cut up
• Brown and white acrylic paint
• Pipe cleaners – I found the candy cane ones at Hobby Lobby
• Buttons
• Craft foam
• Stickers
• Ribbon
• Miniature wreaths
• Felt – white, for snow drifts
• Index card – for the window
• Hot glue, Tacky Glue, or the glue of your choice
• Miniature Christmas tree – optional, I purchased this 8″ Christmas tree on Amazon.
• Felt for carpet inside the house – optional
• Any doll house people and furniture. Or, use LEGO figures!

I started with a plain shoe box from my Duck Feet shoes. It ended up being perfect for this project. (And the shoes are pretty awesome too!)

I cut the lid off the shoe box.

I purchased a nice shipping box at Walmart for cutting out the roof pieces. I also cut out cardboard rectangles to cover the floor and make the floor space a bit larger.

The roof pieces are glued together at the top with hot glue. I also used hot glue to attach them to the side of the house.

Then I traced the roof line to make a cardboard triangle to fill in the walls for the second story.

Here’s the finished house! My next step was to paint the outside of the house brown and the roof white.

Once the paint was dry, it was time to decorate!

I found the stickers and the candy cane pipe cleaners at Hobby Lobby – SO CUTE!

I outlined the roof with pipe cleaners – so easy, and it looks great. If you don’t have the candy cane pipe cleaners, use red, green, or the sparkly white ones.

I cut a cute little door out of craft foam and glued it to the house. It doesn’t actually open. We didn’t want any real doors or windows taking up space in our tiny house, but you can do whatever you want!

The door is outlined with a pipe cleaner. I attached it with hot glue. (Of course!)

The ribbon bunting is so easy to do! Rather than trying to wrangle a long piece of ribbon and get it to lay nicely, I just cut segments out of ribbon. I glued them on one at a time and then added buttons to cover up the seams.

Janie stuck candy stickers on the bottom of the house. We added felt snowdrifts, which made it look so cute!

The window is just an index card cut to the right size. Then I glued on pipe cleaners for the window frame.

Beyond that, the gingerbread dollhouse just has stickers and buttons glued on the roof. Then you’re done!

Add felt to make carpet inside the house, if desired. I chose from options I already had on hand.

Then it was time to play! I ordered the little Christmas tree on Amazon and added buttons for ornaments.

For presents, we wrapped little wooden blocks in Christmas wrap. SO CUTE!

We used Calico Critters in our dollhouse, but you can also use any dollhouse people, Playmobil figures, or LEGO figures.

Have fun making a cardboard gingerbread dollhouse!

Be sure to stop by and see our Pumpkin Doll House. We also have a fun Building Block Doll House.