I Heart Crafty Things

Polar Bear Masks

We’ve been learning about Polar Bears this week and to go along with all the books we’ve read we decided to make Polar Bear Masks. They turned out so cute and my boys just love them!

{This post contains affiliate links for your convenience, read our Disclosure Policy for more information.}

Supplies you will need:

Directions:
1. The most difficult part about making our polar bear masks was making the holes in the paper plate for the eyes. I traced a small circle for the eyes and then used a craft knife to cut them out. This step must be done by an adult.

2. For the snout we used an empty plastic fruit cup. I also used it to make the ears by tracing it onto a piece of white card stock paper, cutting it out and then cutting the circle in half. This makes the two ears.

3. Paint the clear fruit cups with white acrylic paint and let them dry completely. They may require 2 coats of paint. 

4. While the snout was drying, we put school glue onto a section of our paper plate and then placed white crumpled tissue paper squares all over the glue. Do this on every section until the paper plate is covered. We opted to not put tissue paper where the snout was going to go, but I don’t think it matters which way you do it.

5. Next glue the ears to the back of the paper plate.

6. Once the snout is dry, draw a bear mouth on the bottom of the cup with a black permanent marker.

7. Use a glue gun to run glue around the bottom rim of the cup and glue it down onto the polar bear face. Also use the hot glue gun to glue on the black pom nose. (Adult supervision required with use of a hot glue gun.)

8. To finish the mask, simply punch holes onto the sides of the paper plate and tie a knot on each end with a piece of string or yarn. They turned out so cute and my boys gave them a thumbs up!

Another idea instead of using string would be to glue a large craft stick to the bottom and they could just hold the mask up to their face. Or I think they would be cute using large wiggly eyes for the eyes and not making them masks. So many possibilities. 

Related Posts

Comments

  1. Tonii says

    January 6, 2012 at 1:02 AM

    These masks are absolutely adorable!! I am definitely going to steal this idea, thank you so much for sharing. I LOVE the pom pom nose 🙂

    Reply

  5. Michelle says

    January 6, 2012 at 1:40 AM

    This is so cute, Emily loves when we use plastic containers in our art projects. I think we are going to need a polar bear week! Thank you for sharing and linking up to stART 🙂

    ~Michelle

    Reply

  6. Michelle says

    January 6, 2012 at 1:40 AM

    This is so cute, Emily loves when we use plastic containers in our art projects. I think we are going to need a polar bear week! Thank you for sharing and linking up to stART 🙂

    ~Michelle

    Reply

  11. Brimful Curiosities says

    January 6, 2012 at 4:39 AM

    Those masks are terribly adorable. What fun they must be to wear! Especially love the fruit cup noses.

    Reply

  12. The Bishop Family says

    January 6, 2012 at 7:22 AM

    Ok, I squealed with delight when I saw this post!!!!!!!! I absolutely love this craft. We are doing this next week for sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    [I realize there are like 20 exclamation points already on my comment, but I had to use that many!!]

    BTW- I feel we would be great friends if we were next door neighbors. I agree with your post on my blog. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.

    Reply

  13. "The Kids Place" Home Daycare and Preschool says

    January 6, 2012 at 12:28 PM

    Love this!!! We will be making this one. What a cute craft. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  14. Anonymous says

    January 6, 2012 at 2:10 PM

    I love this idea! We have a polar bear book so we will read it first and do the craft after that, thanks!

    Reply

  15. CIndy says

    January 6, 2012 at 3:43 PM

    Love this! I know my kiddos will too!! Perfect timing because we are reading about polar bears this week! I just reserved a couple more of your book suggestions at the library!! Thank you!! Another cute book is Panda and Polar Bear by Matthew J. Baek. We did a story art project with it that I hope to post next week!

    Reply

  16. JDaniel4's Mom says

    January 6, 2012 at 7:33 PM

    This is super cute! JDaniel was just talking about polar bears this morning! We will have to read these book and make the mask.

    I pinned this post!

    Reply

  17. Kelly says

    January 6, 2012 at 7:47 PM

    Super cute! I have all the supplies and will be doing this with my kids soon. Thanks for linking up to my party!

    Reply

  18. chelle says

    January 6, 2012 at 9:24 PM

    Very cute polar bear!! I'm always saving those little cups from fruit, pudding, or yogurts…so far we have just used them for paint/glue cups but now diff have to set one aside for this project 😉

    Reply

  19. Beth (www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com) says

    January 7, 2012 at 1:29 AM

    These are SUPER cute!!!!!! LOVE them. I am totally going to use these with my bear crazy boy =-)
    Beth (TGIF)

    Reply

  23. Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas says

    January 8, 2012 at 3:43 PM

    Ah, did I ever mention that Polar Bears are my FAVE animal? LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them & this craft!

    Thanks for sharing on the Sunday Showcase! I shared on FB & Twitter & will be pinning to my Bear Board on Pinterest too! 🙂

    Bern

    Reply

  26. Katie says

    January 11, 2012 at 5:36 AM

    These are A D O R A B L E!!!! Pinning these and thanks so much for sharing those books, I haven't read any of them, and I would love to get some books on polar bears! Thanks for linking up with thrifty Thursday!

    Reply

  30. Diana - FreeStyleMama says

    January 13, 2012 at 3:38 AM

    Super cute! I found you via For the Kids Friday and am a new follower. I have a new meme called Thematic Thursday and this week's theme is Winter/Snow. I'd love to see this post linked up. Find Thematic Thursday here.

    Reply

  31. Beth (www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com) says

    January 13, 2012 at 11:24 AM

    I featured this at TGIF Linky Party #12 – as it is your second feature feel free to email me at livinglifeintentionallyblog @gmail.com to get your special featured more than once button =-) Thanks for sharing your creativity with the rest of us & I can't wait to see what you link up this week!!!
    Beth =-)

    Reply

  33. artsy_momma says

    January 15, 2012 at 9:43 AM

    So cute Rachel! I am going to have to check out that last book for sure…. I just LOVE all your paper plate crafts 🙂

    Reply

  34. Ally @momstownteach says

    January 19, 2012 at 10:20 PM

    Adorable! Another polar bear book I love is called Snowy's Special Secret -it even has fuzzy touch and feel bears!
    Thanks for linking up to momstown arts and crafts!

    Reply

  35. Anonymous says

    January 31, 2012 at 11:45 PM

    It is Winter Animals this week. I teach 3 year olds. We are going to make these this week. Thank You so much for the idea 🙂

    Reply

  38. Alison Hyndman says

    April 17, 2012 at 7:08 PM

    These are adorable! I am doing a grizzly bear day so I will adapt these to brown masks< I'm sure they will be as cute.
    Thanks for sharing your ideas,

    Alison Hyndman 🙂

    Reply

  40. Cindy deRosier says

    January 8, 2013 at 3:09 PM

    I'm the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your polar bear mask! You can see it here:

    http://funfamilycrafts.com/polar-bear-mask/

    If you have other kid friendly crafts, we'd love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!

    Reply

  42. Mary says

    March 5, 2017 at 2:06 PM

    These are very cute – but I noticed the picture of the children wearing the mask look different than the original – Did you use 2 paper plates (or one &1/2)? They look longer and less rounded..

    Reply

    • Rachel says

      August 30, 2017 at 4:01 PM

      When you tie them in the back and the child places it on their head they do look longer and less rounded. I don’t think there is a way around that.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

I Heart Crafty Things is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.