Directions for Making a Puppet
Not only have puppets been a helpful learning tool for children, they're also used to make people of all ages laugh. Puppets have been around the world for years in the form of shadow puppets, marionettes, Muppets, sock puppets and paper bag puppets. They have been seen on TV, at birthday parties, in the home, in the movies and even on Broadway.
Things You'll Need
- Block of foam (larger than a grapefruit)
- Jagged-edged knife
- 1 yard of colored fleece (stretchy kind)
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
- Cardboard
- Black felt
- Red felt
- Golf balls or wiggle eyes
- Golf tees
- Colored felt (to match color of hair)
- Wig, string or a hat (for hair)
- Doll shirt or dress/child's shirt or dress
- Needle and thread
Instructions
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Making a Muppet
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1
Use knife to cut block of foam in the shape of a head--a circle, oval or any head shape you want.
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2
Use knife to cut out mouth. Cut a pie-slice shape for the mouth and then cut off the lower jaw. You will add a lower jaw later.
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3
With knife, cut out a hole for your hand at base of puppet's head. Finger grooves can also help to control the puppet mouth.
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4
Use scissors to cut enough fleece to cover the puppet head. Hot glue the fleece to the head, including the mouth. Starting in the middle of the head and work your way out. Make sure the fleece touches the foam in all the cutout holes. Stretch the fleece and smooth it until all surfaces are covered and there are no bumps.
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5
Cut a half circle of cardboard, with the scissors, that fits into the mouth. This will be the bottom jaw. Glue fleece onto the cardboard. Cut out a half circle of black felt (smaller than the cardboard). Glue it to the inside part of the bottom jaw. Cut out a half circle of red felt (smaller than the black felt). Glue to the black felt. This will be the tongue.
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6
Glue the bottom jaw to the inside of the mouth. Hold in place until jaw stays in place on its own.
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7
Draw pupils with marker onto golf balls and glue them to top of tees. When dry, press pointy end of tee into fleece and foam head, above nose of puppet (where eyes belong). Or glue wiggle eyes on.
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8
Glue string, wig or hat onto head of puppet.
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9
With scissors, cut out shapes of hair-colored felt to form eyebrows, mustaches, beards, goatees, etc. Glue facial hair to puppet.
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10
With scissors, cut length of fleece out and glue ends together to form a tube shape. Glue one end of tube to head, where neck should be. This is now a neck.
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11
Glue fleece to neck of shirt or dress. Crinkle newspaper and fill shirt or dress.
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12
Use marker to trace hand on fleece. Trace ring finger and middle finger together so outline has four fingers. Cut out with scissors. Use hand outline to trace and cut out another hand. With needle and thread, sew two fleece hands together and turn inside out. This makes a hand for your puppet.
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13
With one hand in the puppet hand and the other in the puppet, kneel below a table and begin your puppet act.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Glue and gun tip of hot glue gun can get very hot.
