Cute Paper Cup Elf Craft for Kids (Free printable template!)

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This adorable elf craft is made from a paper cup! We love reusing items in our crafts around here. And this is a great Christmas craft for kids.

Making this fun paper cup elf craft is a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

It’s easy and doesn’t require any special skills, so anyone can do it.

Plus, it’s a lot of fun to make these little elves and see how they turn out.

It’s a great Christmas craft kids will love and we made it super easy with a free elf template.

Materials

To make this little elf you’ll need the following materials and supplies:

Colored craft paper: We used a skin tone color, and Christmas colors like red and green. You’ll also need a separate color for their hair.

Elf template: You can grab the free printable elf template at the end of this tutorial.

Craft paint: We like acrylic for kids crafts like this.

Paper cup: We used a basic 8 oz paper cup we had.

You’ll also need other basic supplies like

• A paint brush
• Pencil
• Glue stick or craft glue
• Black marker

How to Make a Paper Cup Elf

To start making your paper elf craft, grab your supplies and print out the elf template.

Start by deciding which colors you want to use for your elf. The elf template we have includes patterns for the elf’s head, hair, hat base, hat border, hat pom pom, and the outer and inner ears and the checks.

Trace all the pieces onto your colored pieces of paper and cut them out.

Or print them out and color them in and cut out all the pieces.

Then grab the two hat pieces and attach the border to the hat base along the curved side.

Then attach the circle cut out, the pom pom to the tip of the hat.

Next, attach the inner ear pieces to the out ear pieces. Then attach the hair piece to the top side of the head.

Next, attach the ears to the sides of the elf’s head and glue on the cheeks.

And attach his hat.

Finally, using the black marker, draw a cute face on your elf.

Next, grab a paper cup. Make sure there’s no debris and that it’s fairly clean.

If it’s a colorful cup, paint a base coat of white paint first and allow it to dry completely.

Then paint the entire cup green, or whatever color you’d like the body to be.

We added a red “belt” to the bottom of the cup with a strip of paint. You could also glue a strip of construction paper to make the best too.

With the cup turned upside down, glue the elf’s head to the top of the paper cup.

And that’s it. Your paper cup elf craft is all finished!

Grab the Elf Template

To grab the printable elf template, put your email in the box below. We’ll send it straight to your inbox.

We’ll also let you know when we have other awesome craft freebies.