Nutcracker Template

How to make the toilet-roll nutcracker

1. Measure the roll. Lay a ruler across the open end and read the outside diameter, then stand the roll up and measure its height. Most toilet rolls are a little over 4 cm across and about 10 cm tall, which is why the page starts at 4.2 × 10 cm, but brands differ by several millimetres, and a wrap made for the wrong roll gapes or overlaps too far. A kitchen roll works too: type its height (up to 24 cm).
2. How the wrap is sized. It goes once round the roll and overlaps itself by 8 mm to glue, so its width is π × diameter + 8 mm. For a 4.2 cm roll that is 3.1416 × 42 = 131.9 mm round, plus 8 mm: a wrap 139.9 mm wide and exactly as tall as the roll. The hat, face, jacket, belt, trousers and boots are bands; the arms sit a little less than a quarter of the way round on each side, so they show at the edges when you look at the front.
3. Print at “Actual size” or 100 % on ordinary 80 to 100 g/m² paper. Thin paper rolls round a 4 cm tube without creasing; card thicker than about 160 g/m² cracks. The 50 mm bar at the foot of the page tells you whether the printer shrank it.
4. Cut and glue. Cut between the corner marks. Run a glue stick over the whole back, press the grey GLUE tab's dashed edge along the roll's seam, wrap it round and press the other end over the tab. The face lands exactly opposite the join.
5. Finish it (optional). Cut a circle of black card 1 cm wider than the roll, snip in from the edge every centimetre, fold the tabs down and glue it on as the hat's top. A pompom or a feather pushed into the top becomes the plume; a pipe cleaner glued behind the arms makes them stick out.

How to make the stand-up nutcracker

Choose a height: 8.5 cm prints ten figures on a sheet (a class set, or place cards), 13 cm prints three, 17.5 cm prints two on A4 and three on Letter. Print on card of 200 to 300 g/m², cut along the solid line, then score the dashed line by running a blunt knife or an empty ballpoint along a ruler and fold the base back. The base is 42 % of the figure's height deep (5.5 cm on the 13 cm one), so it does not tip backwards; because the figure stands right over the fold, bend the base to slightly less than a right angle so the figure leans back a few degrees and its weight rests over the base. On a slippery shelf, a coin taped under the base helps.

Questions

Is this nutcracker template free? Is there a printable PDF?

Yes, both. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no paid version. Every option downloads as a PDF on A4 or US Letter (the page picks the one your device's language suggests) or as a PNG at 300 dots per inch, and every mark sits at least 6 mm in from the paper edge so a home printer does not clip it.

How do I use the nutcracker face template?

Choose “Face”. The sheet prints the face at five widths, hair edge to hair edge: 10, 5.6, 4, 2.8 and 2 cm. Measure your wooden head (an unpainted craft nutcracker, a peg doll or a wooden spoon) and use the face of the same width. To transfer it, shade the back of the printout with a soft pencil, tape it in place and draw over the lines with a ballpoint; the graphite stays on the wood. Paint the skin first, then the hair and beard, then the mouth, and dot the eyes and the white highlight last. On card, simply print it in colour and glue it on.

Is there a nutcracker eyes template?

Choose “Eyes”: six styles (round, happy, wink, stern, sleepy and glancing to the side), each pair at four widths from 16 to 56 mm, with the eyebrows. The same six styles can go on the figures and the face template, from the Eyes row in the form.

What is the outline template for?

It prints one nutcracker as a black line drawing as tall as the paper allows (about 27 cm on A4). Trace it onto plywood or MDF to cut a large porch nutcracker with a jigsaw (scale it up at a copy shop for a life-size one), use it as a colouring page, or cut it out of card. A name on the hat prints in the outline too.

Which nutcracker craft is best for kids, and which for adults?

For children from about four or five, the toilet-roll wrap in colour-in is the easiest: they colour the flat sheet, an adult helps to wrap it, and only straight lines need cutting. From about seven, children can cut the stand-up figure's outline themselves. For adults, the face and eyes templates are meant for painting wooden nutcrackers and ornaments, and the 17.5 cm stand-up on thick card makes a mantel decoration.

Can I make one for every child in a class?

Yes: on Roll or Stand-up, press “Class set” and paste the names, one per line or separated by commas (a column copied from a spreadsheet works). Every name gets one figure with that name on its hat, each name once. Tick “Mix the six uniforms” and the uniforms take turns along the row. Until you type a name the preview shows six sample names, but they never print: downloaded without a list, the hats are blank to write on by hand.

Want more Christmas things to make?

The paper Christmas village and the gingerbread house template build a scene for the nutcracker to stand in, and the gnome template uses a toilet roll the same way.