DLTK's Christmas for Kids
Santa Claus Doorknob Hanger

Tasha and Kaitlyn both made these Doorknob Hangers.  You can just use the paper templates and make a 'temporary' one (it will last a Christmas or two) or you can trace the templates onto fun foam to make keep sakes that will last for years.  (we used fun foam as you can see in the photo)

Young children can make it (it's easier for them to do the paper version), but even pre-teens through adults will enjoy creating this cute doorknob hanger.  Use fun foam to make the project more challenging.

Materials:

• 2 pieces of ribbon (we used green)
  • 1/2 inch to 1 inch wide
  • each piece should be about 1 1/2 to 2 feet long
• small white pom pom or cotton ball, 
• black marker, 
• Optional:  about 1/2 a foot of thin ribbon (1/8 inch or so wide) and jingle bells 
• glue  (white school glue or tacky craft glue),
• scissors,
• scotch tape,
• printer,
• paper,
• something to color with (if making the B&W paper version)
• Optional:  1 sheet of red and 1 sheet of white fun foam and a piece of cardboard
  • you can make the face with white or you can also get a small sheet of skin colored fun foam
  • you can also skip the fun foam and just make a paper version of the craft

Instructions - paper version:

• Print out the template of choice and color if necessary.
• Cut out the template pieces.
• Glue Santa Claus together as follows:
  • the oval piece is the face
  • Glue the beard to the back of the face (yes!  the back)
  • Glue the mustache to the front of the face so it covers where the face meets the beard
  • Glue the larger round circle (nose) above the mustache
  • Glue the smaller round circle (mouth) below the mustache
  • Glue the large moon shape to the top of the face (this is the hat and should be colored red)
  • Glue the thinner moon shape where the large moon meets the face as the brim of the hat
  • Glue the mittens behind the beard so it looks like his hands are sticking out
  • Glue the pom pom or small piece of cotton ball to the right side of the hat (where the red of the hat meets the white brim)
  • Use a black marker to draw eyes...  You can just draw little simple U shapes to make it look like Santa's eyes are closed.
• While Santa is drying, lay the two pieces of green ribbon out on the table and tie a bow in the top to attach the pieces together.
• Take the three HO pieces and glue them to the ribbons.  Make sure you leave lots of room at the top for Santa and for the ribbon to slip over the doorknob.  You might want to look at the photo at the top of this page to see exactly how this works.
• You may want to use a bit of scotch tape to hold the HO HO HO pieces in place while they dry.
• Optional:  tie two jingle bells to the bottom of the thin ribbon and tape that to the bottom HO.
• Glue the Santa Claus to the top of the ribbons...  Again, make sure you leave enough room at the top so the ribbon will slip over the doorknob.  You can use the scotch tape again to hold Santa in place.

Instructions - fun foam version:

• Print out the B&W template.
• Glue the B&W template onto a piece of thin cardboard (old cereal boxes or the back of a paper pad work well).
• Let dry a bit  (not necessary if you used a glue stick or just a thin layer of glue).
• Cut out the template pieces -- you'll end up with cardboard templates.
• trace around your cardboard templates onto the fun foam
  • the beard, mustache and small moon shape should be traced onto white
  • the HO HO HO, mittens, circles and large moon shape should be traced onto red
  • the oval should be traced onto skin colored fun foam or white fun foam.
• Follow the directions from the paper version to assemble the whole thing.
• Rather than trying to cut the centers out of the craft foam O's in the HO HO HO, we just cut out white oval centers and glued those on  the red fun foam.
• keep in mind when gluing fun foam together that:
  • white school glue doesn't soak in like it does with paper, so don't glob too much on
  • hot glue guns for carpentry melt fun foam.  Crafting low-temp hot glue guns work ok
  • tacky craft glue is my favorite for fun foam projects and is not much more money than white school glue.

Craft Templates:

• Close template window when done printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP in most browsers).

Template 1    (color)    or    (B&W)

Template 2    (color)    or    (B&W)
(two extra HO's... only required if making the paper craft)

Printable version of these instructions