3D Paper Haunted House Craft (with Free Template!)


Published: September 27, 2022 · Updated: December 26, 2023 by Sacha

Love paper crafts? Our free printable template will help you easily craft a 3D haunted house out of paper this Halloween! This spooky lantern craft is both gorgeous and easy to make, and it would make a great DIY Halloween decoration for your home.

3D paper haunted lantern lit up in the dark.

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Nothing says Halloween like a spooky haunted mansion with flickering light in the windows.

And as it turns out, you don’t need complicated supplies to make one. In fact, you barely need any supplies at all… because you can make a haunted house out of paper!

How do you make a 3D haunted house out of paper? With a printable craft template, of course!

This spooky paper craft would make a great DIY decoration for Halloween, and if you use our free printable pattern, it is also super simple to make. All you’ll need to do is cut, fold and glue, and your printable haunted mansion will be ready in no time!

We’re planning on displaying ours near our living room window. Where will you put yours?

Required Materials

Here’s what you’ll need to make a spooky model haunted house out of paper:

Supplies to make a 3D paper haunted house.
  • My free 3D haunted house template, which you can download using the form below (there’s another form at the bottom of the article if you’d rather keep reading)
  • Black cardstock or construction paper (I recommend that you use cardstock because it is thicker and will make the haunted house a lot sturdier)
  • Sharp scissors
  • Parchment paper or wax paper
  • Pencil
  • Stick of glue
  • Liquid glue
  • 2 battery-operated tea lights

How to Make a 3D Paper Haunted House (Step-by-Step)

1. Print Template

Once you have requested and downloaded the printable template, start by printing it out on black US Letter-sized paper or cardstock. (I highly recommend that you use cardstock.)

If your printer is set to print double-sided, make sure you change that and print each of the two pages on a separate sheet of cardstock.

2. Cut Template

Cut along the outer lines of every shape on the template, ignoring any lines that are on the inside of the template. Most of those lines will be used for folding, so they shouldn’t be separated from the main body of the template.

Printable haunted house template cut up with scissors.

The only lines on the inside that you will have to concern yourself with are the ones that form the door and windows. In order for the light from the tea lights to shine through once the craft is finished, you’ll need to cut these out.

The door is pretty simple, but the windows can get a bit tricky. I found that the easiest way to cut them out was to gently poke a hole in the middle of the circle, then cut out one section of the window at a time.

Window of paper haunted house with hole poked through.

3. Fold Template

Fold the template along the inner lines to create the tabs that will be used to assemble the haunted house.

In order to allow the largest piece of the template to be folded into three sections (front and both sides of the house), you’ll need to make a small cut using the provided line, as pictured below.

Paper house template with folded tabs.

You’ll also need to bend the tabs on either side of the gates since these tabs will be used to glue the gates to the house—but don’t bend the bottom section of the pickets, because those are just meant to tell you which parts to glue to the wall.

Paper haunted house gate with folded tabs.

4. Create Parchment Paper Door & Windows

When you have finished cutting and folding the template, it’s time to create the frosted door and windows.

Grab one of the circles you cut out during the previous step and use a pencil to trace its shape onto a piece of parchment paper. (The number indicated on the template will tell you which of window openings each circle will cover, so make sure you keep track of that.)

Parchment paper with pencil-traced circle.

Once you have traced the circle on parchment paper, use scissors to cut it out. Then, cut along the lines inside the cardstock circle (you can discard the rest of the circle), and glue the resulting cross onto the parchment paper circle using a stick of glue.

Black paper cross being glued onto parchment paper circle.

5. Glue Door & Windows to House

Use liquid glue to glue the parchment paper door and windows to the inside of the haunted house, making sure to match each one to the right opening size (as indicated by the numbers on the template).

Frosted parchment paper door being glued onto inside of paper haunted house.

6. Assemble DIY Haunted House

Spread some glue on the folded tabs and press them together to assemble the haunted house. I started off with a stick of glue, but ended up using liquid glue in some areas that were trickier to do—feel free to choose whichever works best for you.

Paper haunted house template with glue added to tabs.

The rectangular bottom section of the house ended up getting placed on top of the folded tabs from the front and back of the house. I also added glue to the tabs of the rectangular section and pressed the tabs onto the inside walls of the house.

Bottom of paper haunted house.

As for the gates, I glued the bottom part (indicated by a line in the template) onto the inside walls of the house, then did the same with the tabs on either side.

Paper haunted house gate glued to house.

7. Add Tea Lights

When you are done assembling your haunted mansion and the glue has had time to dry, it’s time to add the tea lights! Simply drop two battery-operated tea lights into the model house from the top.

Paper haunted house lantern viewed from top with 2 battery-operated tea lights.

Then, turn off the lights to see the house light up like a paper lantern!

3D paper haunted lantern lit up in the dark.

You can always use just one tea light if that’s what you have, but I found that using two produced better results. We had bought our tea lights in a pack of two at the dollar store, so it worked out perfectly.

The tea lights we used also had a nice flicker to them… I’m not sure if this is standard or if the ones we bought happened to be Halloween-themed, but either way, if you can get your hands on tea lights that flicker, it will make your haunted house look even spookier.

It took me a little while to get the template right, but the end result was so worth it.

Who wants a haunted Halloween village next?! Let me know in the comments!

Related Halloween Crafts with Templates

Looking for more easy Halloween crafts with printable templates? Check out these articles:

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