Hobbit House Card

This unique Hobbit home card features the classic, large round Hobbit door which is used in The Lord of the Rings and upcoming The Hobbit movies.

The round door is actually on the inside of the greetings card and the outside is a charming white picket fence which you open up to wander up the path to a home fit for any Bilbo or Frodo Baggins of the Shire. This makes a great project which kids will love to decorate by adding in a Hobbit garden too.

The classic Hobbit door as shown in the movies is a big round wooden door which is painted and has a circular brick surround.

You need one large circle in brown card or paper and a smaller circle in green card or paper. I got lucky and found this stripy, green card which has the look of painted wood.

Bilbo Baggin's door in The Hobbit is described as being green which is why I've opted for that color.

It's very easy to assemble your Hobbit door. Simply glue the green paper or card into the middle of the larger, brown piece. You can use any glue. I always prefer double-sided tape for paper crafting because it is not so messy - my daughter prefers glue because she delights in getting messy!

The 'real' door features a brass knob in the middle. You can use a brad, a round sticker, a flat-backed gemstone or opt for a button.

Make the main card shape by cutting right down the left side of the template and then cut around the curvy top of the Hobbit home on the right side and down the dashed line on top of the picket fence. If you cut this out, you can draw around it like a cardboard template onto a fresh piece of card.

Fold the shorter front piece of card which will have the picket fence over to make the basic card. Now stick the door behind the 'picket fence' flap, with the middle door knob just peeking above and glue on the two small windows too which will overlap slightly.

Trim the little Hobbit house windows so they are cut flush with the sides of the card. It's easiest to do this by turning the card over to the back so you can see where the overlap is.

Next, cut out two thin horizontal fence panels from white card and glue into place as shown on the photograph. Instead of gluing these fence panels on, you could draw them onto the front of your card with a ruler. Or you could use strips of white stickers for the same effect.

Now cut the front flap of card down to the top edge of your horizontal white fencing. You can see more of the wonderful Hobbit door now.

Cut out 5 upright picket fence panels which all have pointy tops. Glue the 5 panels evenly across the card front. Start with the middle piece because you can line this up under the door knob, then add on the two end panels flush with either side of the card front. It's easy then to add the last two panels and get them spaced neatly.

Hobbit homes tend to be cut into the side of hills so often feature a grass roof. You can make a quick grass roof by cutting a piece of green card or paper to match the width of the folded card and round the corners at the top by snipping round them with scissors.

You can glue the green card to the back of your Hobbit home so it is poking up enough to look like a grassy roof or you can optionally add in some nice textured grass ribbon first as you'll see in the following step.

There are lots of ways you could add in some texture to your gassy roof including scrunched up tissue paper, painted cotton wool balls or knitting wool. Use whatever you have to hand which is what I did.

In my ribbon stash, I discovered some thin green ribbon with threaded loops down either side. Perfect. Stick one end of ribbon down with sticky tape, pull it up just over the top of the green card, fold the ribbon down again and stick with tape. Repeat all the way across the card to make a ribbon roof.

Just to ensure that any Hobbits who want to move in to your new abode are not exposed to the harsh elements like rain, we'd better stick the roof on.

Glue or tape the green roof to the back of the Hobbit card. I had to use sticky tape to fix the ribbon decorated roof in place. I then added some wavy, green ribbon in a different shade along the top of the home.

Of course, the really fun part is in decorating your new home. This is the part which kids will enjoy most. Keep kids occupied with a crafty pursuit by making up a blank hobbit home card for each child and then laying out lots of fun things they can use to decorate the new houses with.

Try fabric flowers, paper flowers, punched flowers and leaves, sequins, shaped confetti, ribbon, scrunched up tissue paper, color pens and pencils, brads, stickers, flat-backed gems and more. Have fun!