How do I make cardboard collage houses with party guests?

How the cardboard house activity works

Each guest gets a cardboard house that has already been cut out. They decorate it with fabric scraps, magazine paper, buttons and different roof textures. When everyone has finished, the houses stand together under a paper road taped to the wall, so the group can take a street photo. Each child then takes their own house home, so it can work as the party favor without adding a separate gift bag.

The plan below is an example for eight children making houses, seated four to a table. It doesn't say whether the birthday child or any siblings are among the eight. Count every child who will make a house, including the birthday child and any brothers or sisters joining in, and then add the spare kits. Adults who are staying only need counting if they plan to make a house too.

Make one sample house before you prepare the full set. The sample shows you how the roof and stand attach, how long your glue takes to dry and whether the finished house fits in its take-home bag. Most of the timing and packing advice below depends on that test.

The same sample also tells you how to lay out the room. If the roof needs an extra hand or the glue is slow, plan where houses will dry and which steps need an adult. Our guide on how to organize a craft station covers preparing those steps and arranging helpers.

Cut the house pieces before the party

Flatten cereal boxes and shipping boxes the night before. Each kit has four pieces, shown in the table. An adult cuts the door and windows before guests arrive.

This is a standing collage house, not a full four-wall model. The plan doesn't give sizes for side walls, a door height or a measured fold for the stand, so work out the attachments on your sample before you trace the rest. The table isn't a printable cutting pattern, so printing it won't give you pieces at these sizes.

Stacking two layers of cardboard for each cut can give you a matching set of pieces faster. Try it only if your cardboard cuts cleanly that way.

If you'd rather make folded paper houses, the paper gingerbread house instructions give suggested measurements and assembly notes. They don't include a measured cutting template, though, so you would still need your own pattern or pieces cut by an adult.

What supplies do you need for eight guests?

Put three labeled bins in the middle of each table of four: fabric scraps, magazine swatches and buttons. Keep the roof materials nearby and bring them out after the demonstration. The amounts below cover the starting trays plus some shared extras. They won't stretch to unlimited refills.

Give each child a tray before you open the shared bins. A standard tray holds 15 pieces: five fabric scraps, six magazine swatches, three buttons and one length of yarn (5 + 6 + 3 + 1 = 15). Eight standard trays use 40 fabric scraps, 48 magazine swatches, 24 buttons and eight lengths of yarn. That leaves roughly 20 fabric scraps, 32 magazine swatches and 76 buttons for refills. Share the four glue sticks between the eight places rather than promising one at every seat.

With four glue sticks across eight places, decide before you start how they move between children, for example one stick between each pair of neighbours. Have one adult handle the bin refills, so children ask instead of reaching. For more on this, see planning shared materials without arguments.

How to stick on the pieces and decorate the houses

Put a finished sample at the head of the table, with its roof and stand attached. Use the real materials to show three simple rules:

• Glue stick for paper: use it for magazine swatches, yellow window squares and the corrugated strips.
• A dot of glue for buttons and sticks: dab on a small dot of white glue with a cotton swab, then hold the piece in place for a count of ten. Use white glue for yarn too. Holding the piece keeps it in place, but it doesn't mean the glue is dry.
• Tape for the roof and stand: tape holds the main pieces together while children decorate. Use tape for foil and fabric curtains as well.
• Roof ideas: overlapping cardboard shingles attached with white glue, starting at the bottom row and working up so each row covers the top of the one below (an adult can help start the first row); staggered lollipop-stick halves; corrugated strips with the bumpy side showing; crinkled foil taped in place; or lengths of yarn glued from the top down like thatch.
• Wall ideas: fabric curtains taped behind the windows, a wider scrap above the door as an awning, magazine paper smoothed from the center out, yellow squares behind the windows to look like lights are on, and foam number stickers above the door.
• Button path: if you glue a path onto the paper street, it stays with the display. If a child wants a path on the house they take home, use paper or markers instead. Under-5 trays stay button-free.

If your guests mostly want to arrange fabric and paper, you don't have to build houses at all. A flat rainbow-collage activity keeps the decorating but drops the roof and stand. It also uses number or symbol labels for children who find colors hard to tell apart.

Example schedule for eight guests

This illustrative plan takes 45 minutes, including packing. Before guests arrive, tape the butcher-paper road to the wall at child height. Put a shelf or table underneath for the houses to stand on, because the paper is a backdrop and can't hold up wet projects. Set up a separate packing table with bags, a marker and the low box.

That gives you three separate spaces to find before guests arrive: seats to work at, a shelf or table under the road and a packing table. Our kids party table setup page covers getting work tables ready, including making a sample and writing names on projects.

The steps add up to 5 + 5 + 15 + 15 + 5 = 45 minutes. If you want 25 minutes of decorating instead of 20, add five minutes before the drying time and move the photo and packing five minutes later.

• 0:00 to 0:05: Show the sample house, the roof, the stand and the three sticking rules. Help guests find their named pieces and trays.
• 0:05 to 0:10: Children arrange pieces on the walls before sticking them down, then start their roof.
• 0:10 to 0:25: Refill all trays together at minute 10, then put the bins away. Help with roofs and stands as needed.
• 0:25 to 0:40: Stand the houses under the road. Take the street photo at minute 30 without passing the houses around. Children can write their name tags at the packing table while the glue keeps drying.
• 0:40 to 0:45: An adult checks each house, tapes the roof and bags it. Leave any house that's still wet on its flat surface and give it more time.

Some children will finish their name tags well before the glue is dry. A quiet drawing corner, set away from the houses, gives them something to do without touching the street. Our craft party ideas page suggests starting with one main project plus a quiet option like drawing.

How to send the houses home

Test a gallon zip bag on your sample before the party. If the bag presses on raised decorations, you'll find out while there's still time to change your plan.

Checklist for preparing the craft table

• Make one sample house and check the roof, stand, drying time and bag fit.
• Count every child making a house, including the birthday child and any siblings, then add the spare kits.
• Cut the house kits, including doors and windows, and add name strips.
• Prepare the roof materials, yellow window squares and any number stickers.
• Put three labeled bins on each table of four and fill a tray for every child.
• Make tape-only trays for under-5 guests, with eight larger pieces and no loose buttons.
• Put the shared glue sticks, white glue, cotton swabs and masking tape where adults can hand them out.
• Tape up the road backdrop and clear a surface underneath it for the houses.
• Set up the packing table with bags, a marker for names and a low box.
• Decide who will help with attaching pieces, refill the trays, take the photo and pack the houses.

Sources and further reading

• Cardboard collage houses for a craft party

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