Introduction: Free Halloween Haunted House Papercraft

About: I am a Graphic Designer by trade and a passionate crafter, tinkerer, and inventor at heart

Happy Halloween from all of us at Instructables!!

Welcome to the Instructable Haunted House candy box, our 2022 Free Halloween Papercraft. This house contains a secret opening to hide candy, notes, or other spooky surprises.

This compact papercraft is easy to assemble and is a great activity to get you in the Halloween spirit. Get your family, friends, or students involved too!

If this isn’t exciting enough on its own, Instructables is also running a fun Halloween Photo Challenge & Giveaway!

ENTER THE I MADE IT CHALLENGE

Post a photo of your Instructables Haunted House as an "I Made It" on this project, and we’ll send you an Instructables giveaway pack! Find all the details of how to participate in Step 7.

Supplies

  • Printed Papercraft (Download the PDF attached to this step)
  • Scissors
  • Utility knife

Optional Supplies:

  • Cutting mat - To protect the hobby knife from cutting surfaces
  • Ruler + Butter knife - For scoring the fold lines
  • Tape/glue - This papercraft assembles with no adhesives, but you can add a little tape/glue to make it sturdier!
  • Coloring pencils or crayons - To color in the black and white version of this craft. Markers and paint are ok to use too, but you'll just want to let your master piece dry before assembling to avoid the paper tearing from being wet.

Paper Options:

  1. Cardstock: Use for a stronger more robust papercraft.
  2. Regular printer/copy paper: regular printer/copy paper is 100% ok to use, but will require a little bit more patience and care when assembling your papercraft so that you don't accidentally squash or rip it.

Step 1: Cut It Out + Special Cuts

Print out the pattern at 100%. Once it's printed, cut along the outer edge of the papercraft with your scissors or a utility knife.

Special cuts - Take extra care to cut along the "special cuts" indicated in the photo above in RED.

Step 2: Cut the Slots

Using your utility knife, cut along the THREE slots indicated in the photo above in RED. This is where your tabs will slot into when you assemble your haunted house

Step 3: Score the Fold Lines (optional)

Optional Scoring: Score along the fold lines indicated in the photo above in BLUE.

Scoring your fold lines can make assembling a papercraft much easier, especially if you opted to use cardstock. You can use the smooth side of a butter knife to score these lines, with a ruler placed parallel to the fold line as a guide. Don't press TOO hard with the butter knife or you may rip the paper.

Step 4: Assemble

Fold all the edges you just scored and assemble your haunted house by placing the orange tab into the orange slot along the walls, and the brown tab into the brown slot along the bottom. For now, leave the roof un-attached.

Optional Adhevise: This papercraft assembles with no adhesives, but you can add a little tape/glue to both of the above tabs to make it sturdier.

Step 5: Fill and Close

At this point, you can choose to continue assembling your roof, or hide something inside your haunted house. We suggest candy for a friend, a spooky spell for an emergency escape, or any other secrets you need to hide this halloween season.

Once you're ready to close up your papercraft, fold the purple triangles on the side of your roof inwards, and slot the purple tab on the roof into the accompanying purple slot.

VIOLA! You just completed your very own spooky Instructables Haunted House. Looking for some friends to invite over? Check out our previous year's papercrafts

Step 6: Tinkercad

Build you own haunted house in Tinkercad by following this starter lesson: How to Build a Tinkercad House.

Follow along in the attached 30 minute video as I work through this lesson with you. This project is beginner friendly and you do not need any existing knowledge of Tinkercad to join in the fun.

Complete Lesson 1 and decorate your house for Halloween to be eligible for our spook-tacular giveaway! Remember to take a screenshot or click the "send to" button in the top right corner of your Tinkercad workstation to download an image.

Find all the details of how to submit your image for the give-away in Step 7.

Step 7: Instructables Giveaway

Here's how to participate: 

  • Build your Instructables Haunted House Papercraft or build a Tinkercad Haunted house House (see step 6).
  • Share a photo of your Haunted House with us by clicking the yellow "I Made It" button, which can be found at the bottom of this project.
  • We must receive submissions and iterations of this project by November 7th, 2022 (11:59pm Pacific Time) to be eligible for this offering, and we’ll send you an Instructables giveaway pack filled with goodies!

Instructables staff will feature the best recreations of this papercraft project on our Twitter and Instagram Stories.