Santa Ornament from a Toilet Paper Roll

by Debra Woods

I have a very hard time throwing anything away that I think might be useful for some unknown future project at some unknown future date!  I noticed a particularly nice toilet paper roll as I was replacing it on my holder in the bathroom and thought - "hmmmm, maybe this would be useful someday!"  Yeah - I got it bad!

So today I did a google search on "Toilet Paper Roll People" - funny search term, but it worked!  Pretty much all the images that Google served up looked like little kids had made them for a cheap kiddy craft.  Humph!  What's up with that?  Don't other adults value cardboard the way I do?  I saw it as a challenge and just got started making a Santa, because there near my desk I saw a mini Christmas scrapbook paper pad from a few years back, a couple stray cotton balls on my desk from the last time I painted my toenails, and just started measuring and cutting and gluing.  It's how this "crafter" rolls (pun realized after the fact)!  Not even a real pre-envisioned plan - that's me!

He turned out pretty cute, huh?

I did a video tutorial for this project, you can watch it below.  I decided I should make a list of materials:

• 1 toilet paper roll
• 3 different Christmas papers about 4.5" x 6.5"
• 2 cotton balls
• Black or white card stock sheet

Other supplies I used:

• Scissors
• Ruler
• Circle object for tracing hat
• Tacky glue
• Rubber bands
• Black Sharpie
• Gold paint pen
• Blush make-up
• Q-tip
• Scotch tape

I plan on giving these as ornament exchanges and will therefore add some kind of thread or cord I thread onto a sewing needle and stick through the top of his hat and tie so he can be hung on a tree.

You could use black stiff paper for his feet and his belt, but I had markers handy so that is what I used.

So here is the video tutorial so you can see the process I used to make this little guy!

NOTES:

I made a couple of mistakes in the voice over on the video. 

1. I actually tucked the extra paper on both the top and the bottom of the roll.
2. I used a second cotton ball for his beard
3. I cut out the feet before coloring the bottom black.

It would have been better to draw the eyes and mouth and add the blush to the face before sticking it on the body. A little red dot for his nose would also be cute, but I didn't have a red marker handy!  I'm all about efficiency!

You could add a tiny Christmas ornament to his hand of a little tree or a wrapped present or nearly anything.

I will also write my name and the year on the back of each ornament, as we exchange ornaments every year in our family.