Christmas Clay Pot Craft Ideas for Santa and Elf

These Christmas clay pot craft ideas for a Santa and elf are absolutely adorable and so fun to make for the holiday season. Follow my step-by-step instructions to make your own festive characters!

Clay pot Christmas crafts are inexpensive to make and are the perfect art project for older kids and adults to make for Christmas decorations or to give as whimsical and cute homemade gifts.

I plan to use my Santa Claus and elf displayed next to my kitchen counter Christmas tree. They’ll be a creative and unique addition to my Christmas decor this year!

CHRISTMAS CLAY POT CRAFT IDEAS FOR SANTA AND ELF

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SUPPLIES NEEDED TO MAKE THE SANTA AND ELF:

• terracotta clay pots
• neutral color paint for base coat
• multi-surface acrylic paints
• Mod Podge
• Gorilla Super glue
• artist brush variety of sizes
• felt scraps/sheets
• pom poms
• detail tip scissors
• permanent black marker (fine tip)
• hot glue gun
• dotting tool or pencil eraser
• Elmer’s glue or Tacky glue

I had trouble at first finding the pot sizes in stock that I needed. I finally hit the jackpot at Michael’s. In case you also this problem, look for small terra cotta pots and mini clay pots at your local craft store, Home Depot or Lowes, and also check at your Dollar Store.

It’s once again time for the monthly “Creative Craft Hop” hosted this month by Birdz of a Feather. You’ll find 8 more Christmas crafts from my blogger friends at the end of my post. Be sure to visit each link. If you’re coming over from Purple Hues and Me, welcome to Southern Sunflowers!

HOW TO MAKE CLAY POT CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

STEP 1 – PREP EACH TERRACOTTA POT

APPLY A BASE COAT

• Clay pots soak up a lot of paint so a base coat will be needed before adding the white, red and green colors.
• Apply 2 coats of chalk paint or a multi-surface craft acrylic paint on the entire pot. Both paints provide good coverage.
• I used a tan color because red paint is very hard to paint over white.

TIP – Use a hair dryer or craft heat gun to speed up the drying time in between coats.

ADD PENCIL SKETCHES

• Use a pencil to lightly sketch out the jacket areas on each medium sized clay pot. These areas will soon be painted white.
• Also, sketch out wide faces on each mini clay pot. These areas will soon be painted with your face color.

HOW TO PAINT SANTA CLAUS AND ELF POTS

Use craft acrylic paints in red, green, black and white as the main colors. You’ll also use a little bit of flesh tone and brown on the heads.

STEP 2 – APPLY THE WHITE PAINT TO DESIGNATED AREAS

• Apply 2 to 3 coats of white paint on each bottom rim of the clay pot.
• Paint 2 to 3 coats of white paint at the front of the jackets and Santa’s hair on the medium sized pots.

STEP 3 – PAINT THE MINI CLAY HEADS

• Use a flesh color to paint the face sections on the mini pots.
• Paint Santa’s hair white and the elf’s hair brown, leaving room for the green elf hat as seen below.

STEP 4 – APPLY RED AND GREEN PAINTS TO SANTA AND ELF

• Apply 3 coats of red paint on the large clay pot and one of the medium sized one.
• Paint the second medium clay pot green.

TIP – Use the straight edge of your artist brush and paint away from the white sections to keep a fairly clean edge between the red/green and white paint.

HOW TO PAINT SANTA AND ELF FACES ON CLAY POTS

STEP 5 – SKETCH AND PAINT THE FACES

Sketch the facial features for Santa Claus and his elf. Use an artist detail brush to paint the cheeks, noses, eyes and eyebrows. Outline the facial features in black paint with a detail artist brush or use a black fine tip marker.

FACE ALTERNATIVES – You can use cute little googly eyes (wiggle eyes) if you want to make the face look different. Use hot glue to attach them. Another idea is to use pink acrylic craft paint and make polka dot cheeks.

STEP 6 – MOD PODGE THE CLAY POTS

Apply a coat of Mod Podge on each clay pot to protect your art project and to give a finished look to Santa Claus and his elf.

HOW TO EMBELLISH SANTA AND ELF CLAY POTS

There are a multitude of ways you can embellish and decorate the little Christmas elf and Santa Claus ranging from easy to more elaborate embellishments. I’ve added some alternative ideas that you can do instead of my decorations. Have fun and get creative!

MAKE POLKA DOTS:

I added black dots to Santa Claus’ and the elf’s suit jackets by using a new pencil eraser to make the dots. The tiny polka dots were dotted using the head of a sewing pin. You can use dotting tools if you have those in your crafting tools.

DOT ALTERNATIVES – Instead of painting black dots, you can glue on clear or black rhinestone gems. Another idea is to glue buttons on in place of the 3 dots.

More Ideas for Painted Clay Pots

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PAINT STRIPES:

For a whimsical look, I painted black stripes to the bottom of Santa and thinner red stripes to the bottom of the elf.

Pick a brush head from your variety of paint brushes that will work best to make the size of the stripes you desire. Since the elf is much smaller than the Santa, I chose thinner stripes to look more proportionate to those smaller clay pot sizes.

PAINT ALTERNATIVE – Wrap green ribbon, red ribbon or patterned ribbon around the bottom rim instead of painting stripes.

USE FELT SHEETS:

I thought that a pointy strip at the elf neck would look cute and quirky so I made it using detailed tipped scissors to cut from the felt scrap. You can tell that the strip doesn’t look perfect, but I think that’s the special aspect of ‘handmade’ Christmas art projects.

Use a thin coat of Elmer’s or Tacky glue to attach the green felt strip to the clay pot.

MAKE A HAT FOR SANTA AND HIS ELF:

My original plan was to use large red pom poms as hats, and then use mini jingle bells or mini white pom poms on top of each hat for a whimsical look. However, my red pom poms that I had were the wrong shade, so I had to come up with a plan B.

I recommend using craft pom poms or painted wooden balls for the hats because my plan B, making my own felt hats, took longer and they weren’t that easy to make. It took a lot of fidgeting to make them work.

If you’re interested in trying felt hats, below is how mine started out with a triangle and accent felt strip. I tested the size of the hat first by wrapping a piece of scrap felt around the head and making marks where I needed to cut the felt. Hot glue was used to attach the cut and glued together piece of felt on to the head. Pull the tip of the hat down a bit and glue in place. Attach the pom poms. It’s a fidgety hat option, but it worked out in the end.

STEP 7 – JOIN THE TERRA COTTA POTS

Run a bead of Gorilla liquid craft glue on the inside of the pot and slide down into place.

I hope you’ve gotten some creative inspiration from my Christmas clay pot craft ideas for a Santa and elf. Merry Christmas!

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE TO SEE MY DIY ROCK PAINTING IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS

BELOW, SEE MORE CREATIVE CHRISTMAS CRAFTS FROM 8 BLOGGERS!

If you’re following the hop in order, Blue Sky at Home is next on the list with Christmas Tree DIY Projects.

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