For day six of our 12 Makes of Christmas we made a cut-out winter cabin, which we lit with a ZIP Halo for BBC microbit. Follow our step by step guide and build your own.
We made ours out of 2mm thick cardboard as it lends itself to an easy build project. The lighting is optional but using the ZIP Halo coded with a rainbow display looked particularly effective, especially when ambient light levels were quite low.
You Will Need:
- A Suitable material such as 2mm cardboard.
- A ZIP Halo (optional).
- A BBC microbit (optional).
- Our cutting template, download here.
Cut-Out Winter Cabin:
The above image gives you an idea of the scale of the cabin and how it would look if lit in the same way as ours. As you can see from the steps below, it's quite easy to put together which makes it a good one to d with young children.
Step 1;
Choose your material and cut the template out. I used some 2mm thick cardboard. The GREEN lines indicate pattern details which can be lightly engraved if using a laser cutter, or drawn on if not. Use a low power and high speed to avoid cutting through too far – do some tests with your material before cutting out. The BLUE lines indicate where the material needs to be folded for assembly. These can be engraved the same as the details or set the power to 0 if you don’t want to see the lines. Cut the BLACK lines all the way through (these may need to be edited, depending on the thickness of your material) and then the red lines after.
Step 2;
Once cut out, fold along the lines marked in blue on the template and begin glueing together. I used PVA glue which worked great. 
Use the cut out slots to line up the door and then fit the roof pieces in place on top. 
Glue the tree onto the base panel. Do not glue the house onto the base as you will not be able to fit any lights inside.
Step 3;
Insert a light source of your choice. I used a Zip Halo and fixed it to the ceiling of the house with some scrap pieces of cardboard. I added a switch to make it accessible from the outside and powered it with 3 x AA batteries. Get coding and create some interesting light patterns. Check out this rotating rainbow effect.
This concludes the sixth of our 12 Makes of Christmas, we'll be back tomorrow with another festive making activity. You can check out the other Makes of Christmas, here.
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