Little town planners will want to take advantage of this truly amazing building material: file folders in festive colors. Use our blueprints -- uh, templates -- to cut out roof and house shapes. Fold, and secure with double-sided tape. Set houses on the mantel among snow-covered trees cut from manila folders.

Print templates at the desired sizes, trace onto file folders, and cut out. If you like, you can line up the center of the roof on the folder's existing fold.

File-Folder Village How-To
1. To make the house, lightly score walls on dotted lines, and fold. Tuck the shaded tab behind the other end; secure with double-sided tape.

2. Lightly score the roof on dotted line, and fold. Lay a layer of the double-sided tape along top edges of house; set roof on, pressing gently.

3. For tree, cut slits in the center as marked. Slip trees together at slits to interlock.

Printable Files
To view and print PDF templates, you need a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader, which most browsers already include. You can obtain the software for free from Adobe's website.