How to Make Cardboard Decorations

Download the PDF template here

Using the templates provided, cut out your star and house shapes from the cardboard. The templates are simple enough that a pair of scissors will be fine, however if you did want to use them with a Cricut machine, you can import them into Design Space.

Add a scalloped line around the edge of your first star. This is just made up of continuous half moon shapes, and try to keep them in a similar size to create a uniform pattern.

Now add a dot in the centre of your star and colour in before drawing five triangles that sit inside the scalloped edges of the stars. Don't worry about these looking completely perfect or exact. As long as you have similar sized triangles, it will be fine.

Add petal shapes to the centre of the star and add dots using just the tip of the pen slightly pressed down, working outwards towards the triangles to complete your first decoration.

Your next design is made up from five lines working out from the centre of the star to the points of it. Try to keep them a similar length but it doesn't have to be exact.

Add teardrop shapes along the lines, creating symmetry by drawing and joining the foliage shapes at the exact same point along the lines. Add a teardrop shape at the top of each line to finish the foliage shape. Add a border around your foliage with lines and dots at each indent of the star.

For your next design, draw your scalloped pattern border but this time colour it in so you have a white border. Add a small circle in the middle and add four half moons around it.

Now add five triangles pointing outwards to your star points and use the tip of the pen to create a simple dot pattern working outwards from the centre.

Your next design is made up of small seed head motifs. To illustrate these, draw a short line outwards and then four lines spraying out from it with circles drawn at the top of these. Repeat around the star so you have 5 in total.

Add in your centre dot with a waved border and then create a dot pattern working outwards between the seed heads.

Finally, colour in the tips of the stars.

These simple motifs can be repeated across the house shapes to make up the roof patterns mixing between scallops, dots, lines and foliage.

Add in the windows and doors with simple coloured in shapes and then you can begin to add embellishments to the house if you wish, although they also look great with just fancy roofs and doors for a more minimalist scandi look.

You can also bring your patterns down from the roofs and use to adorn the windows and doors.

Create large motif style patterns that work around the roof shape rather than just straight across it. Again using the simple motifs we used on the stars just in different scales on the roofs.

Finally, using a pencil and Blu Tac, punch a whole through your cardboard and tie twine through do your decorations are ready to hang!