Affordable, fun and imaginative craft
By ALDONA BIRD
Newsroom@DominionPost.com
There are a million ways you can make puppets, most of which will entertain you/your children for hours. Many can be made with supplies already around the house, especially if this isn’t your first time crafting.
To tie this project into a learning activity, consider making puppet representations of characters in books you’re reading with your kids, or create plays to perform, incorporating new information to make learning extra fun.
Puppetry is an old form of entertainment and communication, dating back centuries — even to ancient Greece. Puppets can be as simple or complex as you like, and while they can be used in professional theater, they can also be used in booster seats in the back of your car on your way to a pandemic-friendly outdoor activity.
Finger puppets
Finger puppets are a great jumping-off point into the realm of puppets, because they are easy and portable. There are different ways to make them, but to get started, try using:
- crafting felt
- scissors
- glue (hot glue is quickest)
- pens or markers
Barn animal puppets can be fun to start with, especially if you are entertaining younger children — these can be a big hit with toddlers.
Cut out rectangles of crafting felt (or other stiff fabric) two and a half inches by three inches. Glue along the shorter side, and join the sides to form a tube. The three-inch side should be wrapped around your finger, with the shorter side resulting in the length.
Trim the top corners of the felt tube to round the head of the puppet. Add features by cutting shapes (triangles for beaks, round noses for pigs, etc) and glue them on. Eyes are easy to add with a marker.
You can use this basic form to create dinosaurs, people, monsters — really any type of puppet. They are also great additions to homemade quiet books for young children.
Spoon puppets
Grab some wooden spoons, and all the random crafting supplies you have (i.e. that bag of googly eyes you bought for one project, and now have a million of, bits of ribbon, pipe cleaners, scraps of felt, etc.) and glue — again hot glue is a great fast option, but if your little ones are helping you, supervise carefully or do the gluing yourself.
Popsicle sticks work well as arms for these puppets. Once they have arms, just have fun decorating! Cut clothes out of felt or other fabric scraps, make hair out of fabric or yarn, accessorize and make a fun and whimsical clan of puppets.
Clothespin puppets
Clothespin puppets are fun because they are moveable, and require very few materials to make:
- clothespins
- paper
- crayons, markers or colored pencils
- scissors
- glue
Printable patterns are available online, or just draw your own patterns. When choosing what creatures to make, consider how you can animate them — clothespins work well to make mouths open and wings flap.
Draw an animal, such as a fish or frog a bit bigger than the size of your clothespin. Make a cut to divide its mouth in two, and glue each side of the mouth to the openable part of the clothespin, so when closed it lines up. If your puppet has a part that is not movable, cut that part away from the movable part and glue on at just one point. Connecting movable and immovable parts, and gluing immovable parts in too many places, will cause your puppet to rip when manipulated.
If making a bat or a bird, cut the wings out in one piece, and a top view of the head, and glue on to the flat side of a clothespin, at the tip. Cut a small rectangle of paper and glue the center to the opposite flat side of the pin, and the ends to the wings.
When closed, the rectangular piece should push the wings closed. When you open the clothespin, it will pull the rectangle (and thus the wings) down.
Create puppets with caution though — it can be an addictive craft.
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