Simple Paper Plate Cow Mask
I am mainly sharing this uper simple Paper Plate Cow Mask, as the Year of the Ox is coming up, and I think to many of you it would be useful! A year of so ago, my son needed a Ox Mask prop for a school play.
As, I lazily lay in bed, sipping a cup of tea that the kids had made me (result!), they both got to work on it together. And this is what they made:
Isn’t it fabulous?
Clearly, it is based on the amazing Paper Plate Masks that Creating Creatives invented and has many designs of! She even did some wonderful Paper Plate Dog masks for us a while back.
I love how the kids at the time, saw, made and learnt… and then adapted it today!
So to make your own Paper Plate Cow Mask you will need:
- a paper plate
- paint in the desired colours (unless you want your cow mask to be white.. then you could add black patches with black paper)
- scissors
- staple
- string/ elastic for wearing
- hole punch
- glue (for any additional features)
- basic paper plate mask shape (grab the printable from the paper plate dog mask – but you will need to cut your own ears and horns)
How to make a Paper Plate Ox or Bull Mask
Now the kids didn’t follow these steps exactly. They kind of winged it a bit. But I didn’t see any arm in revisiting the initial step by step instructions for the dog mask!
The kids did colour in the paper plate FIRST and then cut it to shape.. but you can also paint it later if you prefer!
- Print and cut out the mask template.
- Trace the template onto the back of a paper plate. This is a guide and doesn’t need to be perfect, try and match the curved edge of the template to the curved edge of the plate then trace. Make sure to trace the bottom of the mask, the eyes and the 3 slits at the top of the mask.
- Cut your mask from the plate with scissors.
- Next, cut the slits at the top of the mask, making one cut straight down the line.
- Using a cutting mat, cutout the eyes of the mask with a utility knife.
- On the back of the other half of the paper plate, trace and cut out both dog ears.
- Your pieces should now look like this.
- Hot glue the top of the plate together. Slightly overlap the right side over the left side to give it some shape. Do this for all 3 slits at the top of the mask.
Now it is time to decorate your basic paper plate mask like a cow or ox
The kids used the left overs from the paper plate to cut a
- “Cow Nose” and
- some horns!
- I think you could also cut two ears out
Paint/ colour anything in the desired colours. Here they went for:
- Brown ox face
- White horns
- Pink cow “nose”
Glue the nose to the front of the mask.
Make slits for the cow’s horns.
Insert and tape/ glue to the inside.
Adding the elastic to your paper plate mask
Back to the dog masks – though I think my kids just stapled on the elastic… you can also:
Punch a hole on either side of the mask and string through with elastic.
Enjoy your finished mask!
See all of our Cow Crafts for Kids – many are suitable for Year of the Ox too:
