Tutorial : Cardboard Puppets

Today I am going to show you how to make some cardboard puppets.  Cheap, environmentally friendly and a whole lot of fun.  What more could you want?

 

Here are the instructions on how to make them, but first, make sure you enter the giveaway which closes next Thursday the 23rd of June 2011.


Now, onto the tutorial.

You Will Need:

Cardboard - Thick boxes work great!

Non Toxic Paint and brushes

Hot glue gun

Black permanent marker

Scissors or stanley knife (and a cutting mat if you're using a knife)

Paddle pop sticks

Instructions:

First, paint a couple of shapes onto your cardboard with acrylic paint.  Any old shapes will do - the sky is the limit:

Once dry, paint on some details like eyes, shoes and hats:

Take your permanent marker and draw around the outline of your shapes, but do not do this until the paint is completely dry.  Draw on any missing details like arms, legs, eye balls, mouths and ears.  Note:  You must make sure the paint is fully dry before you do this, or you will end up with a nasty paint mess on the end of your marker:

Carefully cut around each of the shapes, leaving about 2mm around the image.  I use a stanley knife to cut away the bulk of the cardboard and then use scissors to do a tidy up.  I found if I only used scissors I had a blister by the end of the cutting out:

Adhere a paddle pop stick to the back of the cardboard puppet using your hot glue gun.  I chose the fatter paddle pop sticks as they are better for little hands, but thin ones would work just as well:

Then they are ready for playing with:

These guys are a whole heap more durable than I expected them to be.  We have had a few on the go for a good 3 months and they are still holding up well.  

Here are some of the cardboard puppets in our collection - Gary, Guy, Colin, Clive, Percy and Steve:

 

Such happy little guys!

This tutorial is linked to at the following link parties: