Cardboard Tube Sitting Santa and Elf

Looking for a fun craft to make with your little ones this Christmas? Why not make a cardboard tube Santa or Elf. All you need is a cardboard tube and some colour paper.

Supplies

• Cardboard tube (toilet paper roll)
• Colour paper
• Grey lead pencil
• Scissors
• Black felt tip pen/fine liner
• Glue stick
• Ruler

Santa

Step 1

Start with your body. To make your body, place your cardboard tube on some red colour paper, and mark out the length of the tube with a grey lead pencil. Roll the tube along the paper to ensure you have enough paper to go around the roll with a small overlap. Cut out the colour paper and glue to the cardboard tube.

Step 2

Add a face. To make your face, cut a small rectangle from light pink paper approximately 5 x 4 cm. Glue your rectangle to the top of your body, level with the top of the tube.

Step 3

Santa needs a beard. To make your beard cut a white paper rectangle approximately 6.5 x 6 cm.

Round off the bottom corners of your beard and cut a “u” shape out of the top of the beard, so that it looks similar to the image below. I also made 4 little cuts into my beard to give it a bit of texture.

Cut a moustache from a small piece of white paper. To make sure my moustache was identical on both sides, I folded my piece of paper in half. I then drew the outline of half a moustache and cut it out. When I unfolded my moustache it was the same on both sides.

Glue your beard to your body, it should overlap the pink paper slightly. Glue your moustache to your Santa, it should overlap the beard slightly.

Step 3

Make Santa a belt. To make your belt cut a thin strip of black paper approximately 2 x 15 cm. Glue to your body a few centimetres up from the bottom.

Add a belt buckle. Cut a small rectangle 2 x 3 cm out of colour paper, I used green, but some gold or yellow paper would look great too. Fold the rectangle in half and cut a small rectangle from the middle of the paper, cutting across the fold line. Open up and you will have buckle similar to the one below. Glue to the centre of your belt.

Step 5

Make Santa some arms. To make the arms cut 2 rectangles approximately 2 x 5 cm from red paper. To make the mittens, cut 2 mitten shapes from green paper approximately 2 x 3 cm. I drew the mitten shapes on the paper before cutting it out. Glue the mittens to the bottom of the arms and then glue the arms onto Santa’s body. I glued mine on a slight angle.

Step 6

Make Santa some legs. To make your legs cut 2 strips of red paper approximately 2 x 21 cm.

Concertina fold your strips, by folding the paper one way and then the other. Your legs will look similar to the ones below.

Glue the top section of your legs, to the inside of the front of the cardboard tube. Your Santa will now have some fun springy legs.

Step 7

Make Santa a hat. To make your Santa hat grab a small plate from the kitchen (my plate was 11 cm wide). Place half of your plate on top of a red piece of paper and trace around the plate. Cut out your semi circle.

Cut your semi circle in half so you have a quarter of the circle. Keep the other half for your elf hat or another Santa hat.

Make the trim for your hat. On a white piece of paper, trace around one of your red quarters and cut out. Mark your white paper approximately 1.5 cm in from the edge. Do this several times and then draw a line between each of the marks. Cut along the line to create the trim of the hat.

Glue the trim to the red quarter, it will resemble a watermelon slice.

To create the cone shape, glue along the back of one of the straight edges. Curl the edge around to meet the other straight edge and join together to create a cone.

With his hat on, your Santa should now look similar to the one below. You can now choose to glue your hat to your head or leave it loose. I left mine loose, but if you would like yours glued on, glue around the top of the cardboard tube and gently press the hat on Santa’s head. I also chose to add some folds to Santa’s hat so that it looks like the pom pom is dangling. To do this I made 3 folds in his hat and then glued a small white circle of paper on the tip of the hat.

Step 8

Draw Santa some eyes. I drew my eyes on with grey lead first, to make sure they were in the right place and didn’t look wonky. When I was happy with how they looked I drew over the grey lead with a black fine liner.

Santa is now complete! He looks great sitting on a table with his legs out in front, or on a mantle with his legs dangling over the edge.

Would you like Santa to have a friend? Now let’s make an elf…

Elf

Step 1

Make your elf a body. To make your body, place your cardboard tube on some green colour paper, and mark out the length of the tube with a grey lead pencil. Roll the tube along the paper to ensure you have enough paper to go around the roll with a small overlap. Cut out the colour paper and glue to the cardboard tube.

Step 2

Add a face. To make your face, cut a small rectangle from light pink paper approximately 5 x 4 cm. Glue your rectangle to the top of your body, level with the top of the tube.

Step 3

Make your elf a ruffle. To make the ruffle cut a strip of red paper approximately 3 x 15 cm.

Cut little triangles out of one side of the ruffle, to create a zigzag pattern, similar to the one below.

Glue the ruffle to the body of the elf, overlapping the pink paper slightly.

Step 4

Make your elf a belt. To make your belt cut a thin strip of black paper approximately 2 x 15 cm. Glue to your body a few centimetres up from the bottom.

Add a belt buckle. Cut a small rectangle 2 x 3 cm out of colour paper, I used red, but some gold or yellow paper would look great too. Fold the rectangle in half and cut a small rectangle from the middle of the paper, cutting across the fold line. Open up and you will have buckle similar to the one below. Glue to the centre of your belt.

Step 5

Make your elf some arms. To make the arms cut 2 rectangles approximately 2 x 5 cm from green paper. To make the mittens, cut 2 mitten shapes from red paper approximately 2 x 3 cm. I drew the mitten shapes on the paper before cutting it out. Glue the mittens to the bottom of the arms and then glue the arms onto the elf’s body. I glued mine on a slight angle.

Step 6

Make your elf a hat. To make the hat I used a plate to create a semi circle and then cut the semi circle in half (for more details see the instructions for the Santa hat above).

To make the trim for the elf’s hat, I used the circle quarter as a template and cut another circle quarter from green paper. I then measured in from the edge approximately 2 cm and made small marks and drew a line joining them together (see Santa hat instructions for more details). I then cut along the line.

To create a ruffle for your elf’s hat, cut small triangles along the inside edge of the trim. The edge will now have a zigzag pattern.

Glue the trim to the circle quarter, your hat will now resemble a watermelon slice.

To create the cone shape, glue along the back of the one of the straight edges. Curl the edge around to meet the other straight edge and join together to create a cone.

With his hat on your elf should now look similar to the one below. You can now choose to glue your hat to your head or leave it loose. I left mine loose, but if you would like yours glued on, glue around the top of the cardboard tube and gently press the hat on the elf’s head. I also chose to add some folds to the elf’s hat so that it looks like the pom pom is dangling. To do this I made 3 folds in his hat and then glued a small green circle of paper on the tip of the hat.

Step 8

Draw the elf some eyes. I drew my eyes on with grey lead first, to make sure they were in the right place and didn’t look wonky. When I was happy with how they looked I drew over the grey lead with a black fine liner.

Your elf is now complete! He looks great sitting on a table with his legs out in front, or on a mantle with his legs dangling over the edge.

These elves and Santas are so much fun to make. My daughter made an elf, so our Elf on the Shelf has a friend this Christmas. So cute! And of course you can always pick different colour paper and make lots of different looking elves and Santas. We hope you have just as much fun making your cardboard tube Santa and elf as we did.

Love Christmas? Why not make this fun Magazine Christmas Tree or this Star Garland from Old Books

Looking for an Advent Calendar to make this Christmas? Take a look at my Lego Christmas Tree Advent Calendar or my Winter Village House Lego Advent Calendar for inspiration.