Make a winter 3D light up house ornament for your Christmas tree using the Cricut Explore or Cricut Maker. This simple house will look amazing on your tree and it glows too!

Welcome to Have Yourself A Very Cricut Christmas: 25 Days of Homemade Holiday Crafts!

Each day in December, I’ll be sharing a new Christmas project that you can make using your Cricut. It’s going to be a blog version of an advent calendar! Come back every day to get a new “gift.”

Today’s gift is a Winter 3D Light Up House Ornament

Some of my favorite ornaments growing up were the ones that were attached to the strand of mini Christmas lights on the tree.

We had a variety of these kinds of ornaments. There was one that was a little elf with a tool that looped around the light bulb so it looked like he was fixing it. There were others that used the light bulb to create a glowing effect inside the ornament.

I’ve always loved that glowing look of these ornaments on the Christmas tree. I thought what better ornament to make than a light up ornament. I designed this modern paper house to do just that. It looks pretty on its own, but when you place it over a mini Christmas light, it has the most beautiful glow!

You’re going to love this Winter 3D Light Up House Ornament. Here’s how to make it!

How to Make a Winter 3D Light Up House Ornament Using The Cricut

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Materials:

• Winter 3D Light Up House Ornament SVG file
• White Cardstock (8.5” x 11”)
• Vellum Paper
• Strand of Mini Christmas Lights

Tools:

• Cricut Machine (You can use a Cricut Explore or a Cricut Maker for this project)
• Light Grip Cutting Mat
• Cricut Fine-Point Blade (comes with all Cricut Machines)
• Cricut Scoring Stylus or Cricut Scoring Wheel (only can be used with the Cricut Maker)
• Bone Folder
• Hot Glue Gun and Hot Glue Sticks
• Zig Glue Pen

How to Cut Out The Project Using The Cricut

First, you will need to download the Winter 3D Light Up House Ornament SVG file.

Get the Free Winter 3D Light Up House Ornament SVG File

Start by opening Cricut Design Space and creating a new project.

Upload the SVG File

Then, upload the SVG file by selecting the Upload button and then Upload Image. Next, drag and drop or select the SVG file you want to upload.

After the SVG is uploaded, add the image to your design canvas.

If you need a little more help uploading SVG files, you can learn more in this post.

The SVG file will already be sized properly for this project.

Layer Adjustments

You will need to make a few layer adjustments so that Cricut Design Space knows how you want to create this project.

First, change the layer with all of the score lines from Cut to Score. To do this, select the scissors icon next to the layer that has all of the score lines. It should be the second on in the Layers Panel on the right. Then, under Layer Attributes, select the score icon to switch the layer to Score.

Now you will need to ungroup all of the layers. Select the word “Group” above all of the layers. Then, select Ungroup to ungroup the layers.

Next, you will need to select the two layers that belong to the base layer of the house. These layers are the score lines layer and the house layer.

To select both layers, click on one layer, then hold down the Command key (on a mac) or Control key (on a PC) and select the other layers. You will see both of the layers highlighted gray once they have been selected.

Once they are selected, click the Attach button at the bottom of the Layers Panel.

Cricut Tip: The Attach feature allows you to keep images in a specific configuration for cutting, writing, or scoring. It is like putting a pin in the image so that it is stuck in place. When you select Make It to start the cut process, attached images will not move around, but will stay in their attached location.

Make It

Now it’s time to make your project!

Click on the Make It button in the upper right of the screen.

The first screen you will see is the Mat Preview Screen. This will show you all of the different mats needed for your project. Each mat represents another piece of material.

For this project, the gray layer represents the pieces you will be cutting out of vellum paper. The white layer represents the base house piece that you will be cutting out of white cardstock.

Click on the Continue button in the lower right of the screen.

Connect your Cricut machine.

For the first mat, which is the vellum material, adjust your settings as follow.

Material: Vellum

You will need to search to select this material.

Pressure: Default

Tools: Fine-Point Blade

Load the Light Grip Cutting Mat with the vellum material into the machine. Then, press the flashing Go button to begin the cutting process.

For the second mat, which is the white cardstock material, adjust your settings as follow.

Material: Light Cardstock – 60 lb

Pressure: Default

Make sure to set your material to the specific type of paper you are using.

Tools: Fine-Point Blade, Scoring Stylus

Click on Edit Tools to adjust which tools you are using.

You could also use the scoring wheel if you prefer and have the Cricut Maker.

Load the light grip cutting mat with the white cardstock material into the machine. Then, press the flashing Go button to begin the cutting process.

When each layer is done cutting, be careful removing from the cutting mat. You don’t want to rip or curl the materials.

Cricut Tip: An easier way to remove material from a cutting mat is to flip the mat over. Then, instead of peeling the material off the mat, peel the cutting mat away from the material. You can bend the cutting mat as much as you need to keep the material flat. This will give you a much better chance of the material staying flat instead of curling.

How to Assemble The Project

Once all of your pieces are cut out, it’s time to assemble the project.

Start with the base layer of the house. Place it flat on your work surface.

Next, take the vellum pieces that are cut to fit over the window cutouts. Use a glue pen to apply glue to the area around the windows and attach the vellum pieces to the house. The vellum pieces are sized for the different window sizes to cover them completely.

Then, since the Cricut has already done all of the scoring work for you, it’s time to fold along the score lines.

Using a bone folder, fold the base house layer along the score lines and crease as you go.

You will also want to fold all of the attachment flaps.

Keep folding and creasing until you have folded all of the scored lines on the base house layer.

If you don’t have a bone folder, you could also use scissors or another tool with a rigid edge. Just something that will help you get clean fold lines.

Next, it’s time to assemble the 3D house. Using a hot glue gun, apply some hot glue to the attachment flaps on the bottom square part of the house.

Work your way around the house gluing the attachment flaps to the side walls of the house. You will start to see the 3D shape take form.

Glue the attachment flaps on the roof pieces to the pitched sides of the house.

Then, when you get to the last wall, apply some hot glue to the large attachment flap and adhere it to the last wall to create the 3D house.

Finally, glue the two pieces on the top of the roof together to create the roofline.

Now your Winter 3D Light Up House Ornament is ready!

I designed this house ornament to have a hole in the bottom that is perfectly sized for a mini Christmas light, All you have to do is place the light bulb inside of the hole at the base of the house and your winter house will be filled with glowing light!

It’s it so pretty! I left my house just like this and the mini Christmas lights held it in place. You could also attach a piece of string to the top of the ornament if you need to hang it.

I hope you love this Winter 3D Light Up House Ornament.

If you decide to make this project, I would love to see!

Tag me on Instagram. Use the hashtag #25daysofcricut so that we can all see each other’s projects too!

To see more projects from Have Yourself A Very Cricut Christmas: 25 Days of Homemade Holiday Crafts!, click here!

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