Easy Paper Plate Elf Hat with Kids
We love making homemade party hats! Today, we are making some Christmas Party Hats from Paper Plates! Learn how to make a paper plate elf hat with kids quickly and easily! We painted ours and used a little paper from the elf hat trim.. but you can also use marker pens to make it a mess free activity, depending on the time and resources you have to hand!
Are you Christmas party ready?! I am sure you these paper plate elf hats will come in super handy for any class party or Christmas Party at home! Not only can you wear these cute homemade party hats, but they also make cute decorations. You could easily add little name tags and even use them as place settings at the Christmas table! We do have a free printable template for party hats, if you do not wish to use the paper plate method shared today!
How to do you make a party hat from a paper plate?
Making cute party hats from paper plates is so easy! All you need is one paper plate, to make two hats! As you will see in the step by step instructions below, you can either use marker pens or paints to decorate your paper plate or use other embellishments such as stickers and sequence. In this tutorial, we show you how to turn a paper plate into a paper plate ELF party hat…. great for all Christmas Party fans! But of course, you can use the same principle and make these party hats any time of year – whether it is a New Year’s Eve Party Hat or a Birthday Party!
Paper Plate Party Hat – supplies needed:
- One paper plate will make two party hats*
- Paints in desired colours or marker pens
- Paper for Elf hat trims, you could add cotton balls as a trim too – but I prefer paper as it is a little more eco friendly
- Scissors
- Paint brush
- Glue stick
- String/ elastic for wearing your hat
- Stapler
- A little tape
- Wool to make a hand pom pom
* you can use coloured paper plates to speed up the process if you wish!
OPTIONAL ideas: when adding embellishments, you could even hot glue on some little bells all around the bottom elf hat trim. Wouldn’t that be cute?! Or maybe add some rhinestones to the side of the plate for some extra sparkle.
How to make a paper plate Elf hat for Christmas Parties
As mentioned this paper plate elf craft is super easy and fun to make! You can get out all the paints and get messy or you can keep it simple with lots of pens and crayons.. or find a middle grown and get the embellishments out, such as stickers and sequence! The great thing about today’s craft is that I will show you how to make a party hat without a template. However, if you ARE after templates, we do have a free party hat printable for you to check out – but it is for New Year’s Eve. You could however simply use the basic shape and trace it onto your own light cardboard or construction paper.
Preparing your paper plate
We also have a quick video on auto play for you! Enjoy either the easy video tutorial or the step by step phot instructions below!
Fold your paper plate in half, so you have a guide line to cut.
Cut your paper plate in half. This will make two party hats. If you want to make the hats in the same colour, you can paint your paper plate green or red first. However, we decided to only make two hats (I have two kids!), so cut the paper plate in half first!
Make your elf hat trim
We used the unpained paper plates (just to save a little time later) first, to trace the side of the paper plate and draw a semi circle on contrasting costruction paper – so in our case, the first hat we made was green with a red paper trim.
Cut this semi circle out.
Then cut it into a thick “band”.
Next cut some triangles in to your paper band to make the DIY elf party hat trim.
We like this method, because later the party hat trim stands “off the hat” a little, giving it more dimension.
Painting the paper plate
Paint your paper plate in desired colours. In our case painted the half paper plates in green and red.
Making your homemade party hat pom pom
If you are regular reader of Red Ted Art, you will know that we ADORE homemade pom poms and that we have explored many pom pom making techniques over the years… from cardboard pom pom makers, to store bought pom pom makes to… HAND pom poms. I decided to use the hand pom poms today for our Christmas party hats. They are super quick and easy!
We chose to make a red pom pom to match our red trim. But a yellow pom pom would look great too! Wrap some wool/ yarn around your fingers (see image). You do want quite a bit!
Carefully slide off your fingers.
Tie a long piece of yarn around the centre (some people like to tie it whilst ON your fingers, but I find it easier to slide it off first – just be careful not to dislodge the wool loops).
Once tied in the centre, cut the wool loops, so you get a rough pom pom (don’t cut the ties as you will need these to secure the pom pom to the party hat later.
Trim your pom pom a little.. and done! As mentioned KEEP the long ties for later!
Assembling your paper plate elf craft into a hat.
Add glue to the RIM of your paper plate. NOTE: i didn’t stick down the tips of the triangles as I want them to stand free a little!
Now make a cone out of your hat – the elf trim should overlap at the bottom by about 1-3cm.
Open the cone up again – you should now know roughly where the tip of the hat is, so you can position your pom pom.
Position the pom pom and tape it to the back of the semi circle plate.
Now make your paper plate cone again – with the pom pom sticking out the top. It may be a little loose, but you can tighten it in a moment.
Staple the cone shut.
Now pull the pom pom ties a little down and secure them with extra tape if needed!
Finally, you will need to make two small holes on either side of the hat and thread through some elastic so you can wear your hats!
Your easy peasy Paper Plate Elf party hats for Christmas are finished!
Merry Christmas to you all!!
Still have some questions.. let me help you with those.
I often get asked:
How do you craft a puppet elf? How do you make a puppet out of paper and string?
Love this paper plate elf craft, but also looking for more cute elves.. you simply HAVE To take a look at our Elf Puppets – a wonderful template to print and craft with. It comes as many a boy elf and girl elves and in all sorts of skin tones. You can even cut out a photo of your child and “elf yourself“! A super fun moving elf puppet to make as a STEAM Christams Project!
If you are looking how to make other Christmas Puppets with strings, take a look at our:
- How to make a rudolph puppet out of paper and strings
- How to make a Santa Puppet out of paper and strings
for more free digital templates!
How do you make a paper plate elf face?
Paper plate elves are REALLY easy to make!
- Paint the paper plate in the desired skin tone – any skin tone works, not just pink paint!
- Use the same paint to paint extra paper/ card for a pair of pointy elf ears, that need to go on opposite sides of the paper plate
- Using card stock or construction paper, cut out basic elf shapes for assembly, you will need – 2 ears, a triangle for the hat, a trim for the hat, a small circle as an elf hat pom pom and an elf collar. Maybe some strips of paper for “hair” peaking out from under the paper elf hat
- Time to assemble your elf: glue the hat pieces together + the hair peeping out under the hat
- Glue hat and ears in place on the elves head and the elf collar to the bottom of the paper plate
- Using a black marker, draw on a fun elf face – you can even use googly eyes for extra quirkiness and be sure to make big rosy cheeks too! You can have lots of fun adding different interesting facial expressions and giving the Christmas Elf lots of character!
Done! Paper Plate Elves are so easy to make too! Or why not check out Arty Crafty Kids, for their cute version!
What Christmas Crafts can I make from Paper Plates?
Looking for MORE fun and easy Paper Plate Christmas crafts?! Fear not, we have brought together our Top 5 Paper Plate Christmas Crafts for you to browse – each quirky and unique in their own way:
We have more fun paper plate Christmas crafts for you.. including our super popular:
- 3d Paper Plate Christmas Tree decorations
- Adorable Reindeer Paper Plate Purse
- Cute and easy Yarn Wrapped Paper Plate Wreath (with pom poms too!)
- 3d Paper Plate Angel Toppers
Want more fabuluous Christmas Crafts for Kids? Try these:
