We don’t do scary around our house, but my girls do enjoy a little spooky fun this time of year. We recently spent an afternoon creating spooky house pop-up cards – it was so much fun!

I chose to prep a bunch of paper houses and set them out for the girls to decorate. Older kids could certainly learn this simple technique and make their own pop-up houses.

Here’s the simple how-to:

Step 1: Start with a rectangle-size piece of card stock or watercolor paper. Fold your paper in half, like a card. Make two cuts on the fold to create a flap. This will be the base of your house.

Step 2: Give the flap a good fold to the front and back, then pop it through to the inside of the card.

Step 3: With the first flap still tucked inside, cut another smaller flap on the upper fold only. This will be the second-story of the spooky house. Fold this new flap forward for a good crease, then pop it through to the inside of the card as well.

Here are a few of our houses, ready for decorating. You can experiment with cutting straight or slanted flaps. You could even try for a three-story house by cutting another flap!

Decorate your spooky houses any way you choose. We drew details with crayons, then painted our background with watercolors. Any combination of crayons, markers, paint, or collage would be fun.

Use a glue stick to add a paper roof and attach your house to a slightly larger piece of colored card stock.

If spooky houses aren’t your thing, you could make barns, castles, or gingerbread houses. Anything goes!

We’ll be dropping a few spooky house pop-up cards in the mail and the rest are providing excellent holiday mantel decor. Have fun!