| Kid's Puppet Theater |
From "DIY Crafts"
episode DIC-169 |
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Debbie Stapley, host of Crafts & Company, makes a puppet theater from a cardboard box and puppets from socks, gloves and other items found around the house. Theater Materials:
Large cardboard box
Fabric
Acrylic paint and spray paint
Wallpaper scraps
Scissors
Craft knife
Craft glue
- Paint a cardboard box with with spray or acrylic paint.
- Cut a rectangular hole in one side, and glue a cardboard shelf to the bottom of the hole.
- Decorate the front of the theater with scraps of wallpaper, or paint on designs.
- Drape a piece of fabric across the inside of the back.
Sock Puppet Materials:
Sock
Pair of sunglasses
- Place a sock over your hand, with your thumb in the heel.
- Place your fingers in the toe of the sock, and bend your middle finger so that it meets your thumb (figure A).
- Wrap sunglasses around your fingers on the outside of the toe portion of the sock, and pull the earpieces back behind your fingers. The nosepiece of the sunglasses will rest on top of the middle finger.
Paper-Bag Puppet Materials:
Brown lunch bag
Felt in various colors
Scissors
Craft glue
Chenille stems
Fringe
Buttons
- Position the lunch bag so that the bottom is folded against one side.
- The bottom of the bag will be the face of the puppet. Place the bag so that the bottom faces up. Working now only with the bottom of the bag, glue fringe across the top edge as it faces you. Add felt eyes cut in white oval shapes, with round blue circles for pupils. Use chenille stems for eyebrows. Cut out a pink felt nose. Glue all pieces in place with craft glue (figure B).
- Lift the bottom of the bag away from the side, and glue a red felt mouth to the side of the bag along the crease so that when the bottom of the bag rests against the side, half of the red mouth is visible (figure C).
- Glue a purple felt jacket to the side of the bag from the edge of the bag to the fold.
- Place your hand inside the bag, with fingers positioned inside the bottom and the thumb resting against the side of the bag. Open and close your hand, moving the bottom of the bag to make the puppet talk.
Variation: - Make an owl in a similar way by decorating the bottom of the bag with a face, placing a felt beak in the fold where the bottom of the bag meets the side and adding wings cut from another paper bag (figure D).
Glove Puppet Materials:
Cotton gardening glove
Felt in various colors
Scissors
Craft glue
Doll hair
Miniature straw hat
Poly-fil®
Yarn
Wiggle eyes
- Stuff a small amount of Poly-fil into the tips of the fingers of a cotton gardening glove, and tie a piece of yarn around each finger below the stuffing (figure E).
- Glue on felt pieces to create faces on each finger. Glue on doll hair or a miniature straw hat. Glue wiggle eyes onto some of the fingers. Make a felt tie and collar for one of the fingers. Use your imagination (figure F).
Pencil Puppets Materials:
Unsharpened pencils
Yarn pompons
Hot glue and glue gun
Felt in various colors
Fringe
Feather
Wiggle eyes
Hot-glue pompons to the eraser end of unsharpened pencils. Make a chicken puppet using three yellow pompons and a feather and a red pompom for the nose. Cut a small yellow felt triangle for the beak (figure G). Tip: - Try decorating wooden spoons with felt pieces for more fun puppets (figure H).
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