How to make cereal box puppets

Whether you want puppets for your own presentations, or a craft to share with young children, cereal box puppets will surely fit the bill. You can transform small cereal boxes quickly into fun puppet heads.The recycled cardboard makes it easy to color them and add features such as eyes, ears and noses. Robots, animals, clowns and other characters come to life once you know how to make cereal box puppets. Read on to learn how to make cereal box puppets.

Things You'll Need

• Small cereal boxes
• A serrated edge knife
• Markers or craft paint
• Accessories including yarn, Ping-Pong balls, rags, bottle caps and/or construction paper
• Tape or glue

Instructions

1. Cut the box. Lay an unopened box on its back and measure halfway between the top and bottom. Cut across the middle at the waist, so to speak, using a sawing motion with a serrated edge knife. Cut through the front and both sides, leaving the back untouched. Yes, this will cut into the cereal bag and slice up the product, but let’s remember the objective here.

2. 

   Form the head. Remove the inner bag and all cereal. Fold the uncut back of the box to allow the top and bottom to meet. The opening allows fingers in the top and the thumb in the bottom, to work its mouth.

3. Color the box. Back in the day, small cereal boxes were plain white cardboard with wax paper wrapping that held all manufacturer’s print. Now print is directly on the box. Markers or craft paint will cover the logos, and give you a solid coat. Construction paper can also be cut to wrap around the box, and affixed with tape or glue.

4. Add features. Ping-Pong balls make terrific eyes. Slice one in half with a razor blade and glue the cut edges to your puppet’s face. Construction paper makes forming ears, noses, beards and eyebrows easy. Yet items like yarn, rag clippings, bottle caps, plastic eggs and vile tops can also be used.

Tips & Warnings

• Now all your character needs is a voice and a hand. Enjoy hours of crafting and performing with cereal box puppets.