How to Make a Paper House

Preparing to Make a Paper House

Gather your supplies. Depending on what type of house you want to make, you'll need some different supplies. However, all of them are simple and easy to acquire. To make an origami house you need just one sheet of origami or regular paper, scissors, and a marker or pen. Making a paper dollhouse is slightly more complex but still easy enough. You should have 10 to 11 sheets of paper, a pen or pencil, tape, and scissors. If you want to build a paper fairy house you'll need paper, water, a small bowl, a tray or plate.

Decide which type of paper house you want to make. An origami paper house will be the smallest, and a paper dollhouse will be the largest. Determine what you'll be using the paper house for and choose accordingly.

Find a clean work area. It's hard to work in clutter and you'll be doing some precise folding and cutting. Find a clean desk to work on.

Making a Simple Paper House

Fold a piece of paper. Grab a regular 8.5"x11" sheet of paper. The idea is to fold it up and cut it into a square. Start by folding the upper left corner of the paper down so that it lines up with the right side of the paper. Give it a crease at the corner. Now fold the bottom rectangle up and give this fold a crease too.

Cut the piece of paper into a square. Once you're done folding you can cut along the straight crease line that you just made. You will be left with a square with a diagonal crease running through it.

Create creases in your square. Fold the square in half from the left edge to the right edge. Crease well. Then, unfold the paper. Now fold the square in half from the top edge to the bottom edge. Crease well. Again, unfold the paper. You should be left with two creases creating a plus sign through your paper.

Fold your paper into a smaller square. First, fold the top edge down so that it lines up with the horizontal crease you made in the previous steps. Then, repeat with the bottom edge, folding it up toward the crease. Now turn the paper over. Do not undo the folds made in the previous step. Once you've done this, fold the left and right edges in. They should line up with the center horizontal crease.

Open up your roof. To make the roof shape, open the flaps in the top corners. Flatten them so that the corners extend out past the straight edges on the bottom. It should look like an equilateral triangle. An equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides are of equal length.

Add decorations. Turn the house over and then draw on a door, window, and any other decoration you want. You're done!

Making a Paper Doll House

Tape two sheets of paper together. Tape the short sides together. Start by taking two sheets of paper and folding each in half "hamburger style". Be sure to crease them well. Then, unfold them and tape the sheets together. Be sure that you are taping the edges parallel to the crease you made when you folded them in half like a hamburger. Now set these two pieces aside. This sheet will be referred to as sheet A.

Tape two more sheets of paper together. You need to tape the longer side of the papers together. This sheet will be referred to as sheet B.

Draw a line on sheet A. The line should be about 3 inches (7.6 cm) away from the tape. Now cut along this line. Try to follow the line. This will become the front of your house.

Add the door. Set Sheet A so that the tape line is at the top. At the bottom of the larger sheet of paper, Sheet B, draw a door. You can also draw on some windows, plants, or any other decorations you want at the front of the house.

Connect the front of the house and the floor. Use the creased piece of paper as the floor. Tape the bottom of the piece, Sheet B, that you just drew onto the middle of the creased piece of paper, which is Sheet A. Before you tape, make sure that the creases on the floor line up with the sides of front of the house. If they don't, you can either make a new floor following the steps above, or just re-crease the paper so that is properly aligned.

Set up the house. Stand the creased sides of the floor up so that they are aligned with the sides of the front of the house. Tape them to the sides of the front of the house. Don't worry if the walls of the house are too short, you'll fix this soon.

Measure the length of the walls. Measure the excess space on top of your existing walls to find out how much extra space you will need. Then, cut two pieces of paper to that height. You can also draw or cut windows or other decorations on the walls at this point if you want.

Tape the paper you just cut on top of the existing walls. Be sure to also tape it to the front of the house for stability.

Cut out the door. Cut the door so that it is still connected on one side. Then, crease it so that it will swing open and closed as you wish.

Draw two large equilateral triangles on a piece of paper. Equilateral triangles will have three sides of the same length. Now you need to cut them out. These will be the sides of your roof. If you want, you can also cut or draw windows on these to act as skylights.

Measure the length of the top of your house. Cut out two rectangles that are 4" wide and the length of the top of your house. For a more realistic look, draw lines or roof tiles on each of the rectangles.

Tape the rectangles to the triangles. Tape each rectangle to one side of the triangles. Then, tape the tops of the rectangles together. When you are done, you should have a large 3-D rectangular prism shape.

Tape the prisms to the top of your house. You should have a finished doll house! Now you can furnish it with toy doll furniture to give your dolls a beautiful paper home.

Making a Paper Fairy House

Gather 10-12 pieces of paper. If you don't have loose-leaf paper lying around you can also take out paper from a notebook.. Take a sheet of paper and put it in some water. Make sure you get it really wet.

Slowly wring out the water while mashing up the paper. You don't want to squeeze it into a pulp, you just want it to be a soft balled up material. Eventually you should have a ball of wet paper that has the consistency of Play Dough. Add water or wring it out until you find the right consistency.

Make the paper ball into a little line. It should look sort of like a worm. You need to wait until you get it into a clay-like substance before you do this.

Lay your paper worm down on a plate or tray. You need the tray so you can make the small house and put it out in the sun later. Make 3 more little lines out of the wet paper. Place them to form a square that is missing one side.

Continue to make more lines. You should make three or six more lines depending on how high you want your house to be. Put them vertically on the corners of the square that you're making.

Start making wet paper square pieces. After each corner has a line on it, start mixing more of the paper into a play dough consistency. Now instead of making more lines, just make them into little flat blocks. These will be your walls. Put them on the vertical lines until you have a cube that's missing 2 faces -the one on top and one of the sides should be missing.

Make the roof however you want. Be creative if you'd like, or just add a basic flat root over the top of it. You'll follow the same process of wetting the paper to make the roof.

Leave the house out to dry in the sun. This is the final step, and it will hold everything together. Now you can put your fairy house out in the woods somewhere, in your backyard, or just keep it in your house.