Easy DIY Milk Carton Gingerbread House for Christmas
An easy DIY Milk Carton Gingerbread House is a fun and unique craft for kids to make this Christmas! Using a recycled milk carton makes the house easy to form and decorate, even for small children.
Servings: 1 Milk Carton Gingerbread House
Cost: $7
Equipment
- none needed
Ingredients
- pint or quart-sized cardboard juice or milk carton
- Graham crackers
- Regular vanilla canned frosting
- Various decorating candies & foods Fruit slices, peppermint sticks or candy canes, Dots, M&Ms, licorice, cereal squares, crackers.
- Ice cream waffle cone
- Utility knife, scissors, knife, cardboard, aluminum foil
Instructions
- Staple the top of the carton shut (or use tape). Break 3 graham crackers in half.Use a graham cracker half to measure how tall to cut your cardboard carton. Place the graham cracker on the side of the carton and then cut below the graham cracker. Cut all the way around the carton at this height on all four sides.
- For the base of your project find a piece of cardboard that's about 10 inches by 12 inches. Cover it in aluminum foil.Spread some frosting on the area where you want the house to be. Press the cardboard carton down into that frosting to hold it in place.Spread some frosting on a graham cracker half and stick it onto one side of the carton. Do this on all four sides.Place some frosting in a quart sized freezer bag. Cut a small bit off 1 corner. You'll be using this as a piping bag to pipe frosting onto your project.
- Pipe frosting on the top ridge of the carton to start on the roof. Also pipe frosting on the bottom edge of the roof line, next to the graham cracker side.Place a graham cracker half on one side of the roof. Repeat this for the other roof piece on the other side of the roof. Watch the video to make this clear.Use the utility knife to cut a graham cracker half into two triangles. Pipe frosting on to either peaked edge of the house around the edges. Then put one of the triangles on it to cover that open triangle area.Use cereal squares (like Chex) or a type of candy for shingles on top of the roof. Hold them in place with frosting. You can pipe some frosting on top of those squares to make it look like snow.
- Spread more frosting on the base so you have a snowy yard around your house.Place all of your candies in little dishes so that they are available and visible, then stick the candy in various places on the House as decoration. I used peppermint sticks on the four corners of the house. The peppermint sticks covered up the cardboard corners of the carton.
- Use the ice cream waffle cone to make a tree. Spread frosting all over the cone. Set it down on the base using frosting to hold it in place. Add decorations like M&M's for ornaments on the tree. You could also sprinkle it with green sugar sprinkles, or coconut
Video
Notes
There are tips and variations in the post.