Learn How to Make a 3D Paper Condo Christmas Village with This Free Cricut Template and Tutorial
Looking for a fun holiday craft this season? This 3D Paper Christmas Condo design is the perfect display to show off during this holiday season. It is a three-story building with charming accent pieces on the roof, a staircase leading up to the doorway, and it measures 4.5" across by 9" tall.
This holiday village includes a farmhouse, condo, church, house, trees, and a park bench. Each project has its own blog post to walk you through the construction of each item.
Want to add LED lights? This design comes with extra cutouts for tissue or translucent foil paper to put behind the window cutouts. It's a great way to illuminate those LED lights!
I teamed up with JOANN to bring you this tutorial and help you find all of the supplies you'll need for this project. JOANN is my one-stop shop for all of my sewing and crafting needs.
What Kind of Paper Should I Use?
To make this 3D Paper Christmas Condo, I recommend using sturdier cardstock (80 lbs) for the building structure. Using this weight of cardstock will hold the structure of the building instead of letting it tip over. For the details, you don't necessarily need to use heavier cardstock. Instead, use lightweight cardstock such as 65lbs.
I used glitter cardstock for the base of the house. When using textured cardstock, it can be harder to see where the score lines are. To make them visible, place your cardstock face down on the mat, tape it into place, and mirror the image in Design Space.
How Much Paper Do I Need?
Condo Pieces (Building pieces, Roof, and Staircase): 1 Piece of 12 x 12" Cardstock
Details (Window Trims, doors, roof trims, shingles): 1 Piece of 12 x 12" Cardstock
Extra Cutouts: 1 Piece of 12 x 12" Cardstock or 2 Pieces of 8.5 x 11" Cardstock
Supplies Needed:
- Cricut Maker, Cricut Explore, or Other Cutting Machine
- StandardGrip Mat
- Cardstock 65-80 lbs
- Fine-Point Blade
- Vellum
- Scraper Tool
- Scoring Wheel Tip & Housing or Scoring Stylus
- LED Candles
- Hot Glue or Craft Glue
- Clover Wonder Clips
Table of Contents
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE SVG FILE!
Upload SVG File
Before starting, we need to upload the SVG file to Cricut Design Space. First, download the SVG file, then Create A New Project, and click Upload and upload the design to your canvas.
Once uploaded to your canvas, ungroup the design in the right panel, and change some of the cut lines into score lines by clicking on a line (if the line's fill color is red- it's a score line) and changing the operation from Basic Cut into Score in the top left corner of Design Space.
Then, attach the score lines to their respective pieces in the bottom right panel.
Step One: Cutout All Condo Pieces
To start, cut out all the condo pieces making sure to switch between your fine-point blade and scoring wheel.
The 3D Paper Christmas Condo Consists Of:
2 Building Pieces
5 Roof Pieces
36 Roof Shingles
2 Roof Trims
28 Window Trims
1 Doorway Trim
2 Doorways
1 Main Staircase
2 Staircase Side Pieces
2 Extra Solid Building Cutouts
Step Two: Fold Condo Pieces
Once everything has been cut out, fold along the score lines on all condo pieces but the window trims.
Step Three: Add Details
Glue the window trims to their corresponding window cutouts, and glue the two roof trims to the top of the building pieces just below the four tabs.
For the final detail, glue the door pieces to the underside of the square cutout on the front of the building by applying glue to the side tab of the doors.
Step Four: Add Extra Cutouts
If you plan to add lights to the inside, this step will help illuminate those lights. Take your two foil or tissue paper building pieces, align the folds with the fold of the main building cutouts, and glue them in place.
Step Five: Assemble Condo
After gluing on the details, let's start assembling the condo. Apply glue to a side tab of one of the two building pieces and attach it to the adjoining side.
Step Six: Assemble Roof
Next, grab the roof pieces. Arrange nine shingles from largest to smallest on each piece. Before securing the shingles, align them to the score lines and the angles of the roof pieces (there are nine shingles on each roof piece).
After gluing shingles to all four roof pieces, take one of your side roof pieces and align the top score line with the large roof piece. Then, bend and manipulate the paper to follow the slope of the roof and glue it in place. Repeat this to the roof piece on the other side.
Afterwards, go ahead and attach the other large roof piece to the back and glue the square piece on top.
Step Seven: Add Roof
Take the roof you've just assembled and attach the roof to the top four tabs of the building.
Step Eight: Assemble Staircase
Now, we're going to assemble the staircase. Take the main staircase piece and fold it along the score lines.
I found it helpful to attach one of the side pieces of the staircase first to the bottom tab and follow the shape of that piece as you fold and glue the steps in place.
Pro tip: Use the end of a paintbrush or a weeder tool to hold the side of the staircase in place.
Once you're finished with one side, glue the other staircase piece on to the opposite side.
Step Nine: Add Staircase
Finally, after assembling the staircase structure, let's add it to the condo. Apply glue to the back and flush it with the bottom of the doorway and attach.
A Finished 3D Paper Christmas Condo
Once the staircase has been added, you've finished this 3D Paper Christmas Condo!
There are so many ways to display this project! You can light it up by adding lights to the interior or cutting out extra wreaths, trees, sleigh bells, or park benches from the other Christmas village designs.
Looking for more Christmas Village tutorials? Click here for the church, house, and farmhouse.
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