How to make your own puppets!
Friday 26 August 2022
Bottle Head Puppet
What you will need:
A collection of plastic bottles, cleaned, dried and label-less
Lids of the bottles
Wool
Needle and thread
Paint & Brush
Glue
Scissors or cutting blade
Step 1:
Collect bottles and take off all labels and packaging leaving the bottle and lids.
Step 2:
Choose a number of different colours and paint at least 2 coats on the plastic bottles. Poster paints are fine, or acrylic paints. Whatever you have at home.
Remember to cover the bottom too.
Step 3:
Let the bottles dry
Step 4:
Draw a pencil mark where you want the mouth to be. Take a cutter (adult supervision required) or scissors and cut along the line.
Step 5:
Use the lid as a nose and glue it about the mouth. Hold it to stick fast.
Step 6:
Find two buttons for eyes. Check to where you want to place the eyes and glue the buttons on. You can also cut out paper eyes if you would rather. You can also make eyebrows out of black paper and stick them above the eyes.
Step 7:
Now for the hair. Take some colourful wool. Measure how long you want the hair to be. Keep folding the wool along that length, make it as thick as you want and tie the bunch at the centre. Cut the loops at each end. Place it over the top of the bottle and secure it with an elastic band.
Step 8:
Use the scraps of wool leftover for a goatee. This is where you need to thread as strong needle with thread the colour of the bottle. Tie a big knot at the end. Poke the needle from inside the mouth flap. This is to make the mouth flap move. Cut out the needle and tie another knot at the end. To hide the thread we can stick the goatee over it and now your bottle head puppet is ready to play!
Simple Spoon Puppet
What you will need:
A wooden spoon
Pipe cleaner
Paper
Felt tip pens
Something for the hair, wool if you have any old scraps etc.
Step 1:
Cut a triangle of coloured paper the length of the handle of your spoon. If you don't have coloured paper you can use white paper and colour it in. This will make up the base of your dress.
Step 2:
Cut off the tip of the triangle. Colour and decorate your dress however you like. You could use coloured Washi tape, sequins, collage from magazines, wrapping paper, felt tip pens, crayons, or anything else you fancy!
Step 3:
If you have a pipe cleaner, find the centre and wrap it once around the neck of the spoon leaving the ends nice and long to create arms. If you don't, try using a strip of paper or card. This could be coloured to match the dress.
Step 4:
Using felt tip pens, draw a face on to the back of the spoon. Tape your beautifully decorated dress to the spoon. Make sure you leave a good amount of space at the bottom to hold on to.
Step 5:
Cut thin strips of crepe paper, paper or wool and stick to the back of your puppet for hair.
Step 6:
Try making bunches by folding up long strips and tying or twisting them in the centre to make thick luscious hair.
Step 7:
Cut out and decorate a crown and glue it on to your puppet's hair.
