hand puppets

making hand puppets is easy & fun.

Using cheap garden gloves, colored felt and pom-poms you can create wonderful hand-puppets .
Purchase a pair of lightweight garden gloves and some fabric, craft glue. Medium sized gloves tend to work well for most adult's hands but can still be enjoyed by children as well.

Next you will need to gather an assortment of pom-poms. Large Poms for the heads of the characters and smaller poms to be used for the puppets ears, noses, etc.

You will also need different colors of pens, even felt scraps are appropriate. when creatively making the puppets clothes, don't forget to include hats where appropriate, ties for bows & bows for girls hair.

Squiggly eyes can give the puppets character or use small beads instead. This is a wonderful craft for using little bits of leftover ribbon, buttons, lace, beads and other supplies you may have stashed away in your craft closet.


making Hand Puppets
what you will need :
balloon
half of a toilet paper tube
masking tape
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups of water
newspaper
pencil
paint
fabric
yarn
pipe cleaners
scissors
paintbrush
wooden spoon


making hand puppets instructions.

Blow up the balloon and with masking tape, tape the toilet paper tube to the bottom of the balloon.

To make the features, like the eyes, nose, and ears, crumple newspaper into the shapes you want. Or, cut the features out of cardboard, then attach them to the balloon with masking tape.

To make the paste for the papier-maché, mix 1 1/2 cups of flour with 1 1/2 cups of water until it looks like pancake batter. If it's still too thick, add more water.

Dip a newspaper strip into the paste and squeeze off the excess mixture. Lay the strips on the balloon, slightly overlapping each strip.

Cover the balloon and toilet paper tube with three layers of paper maché. It's a good idea to put a few extra layers where the balloon is attached to the toilet paper tube to make it really strong.

Let it dry for a few days. When it's dry, the paper will turn white.

Pop the balloon with a sharp pencil and pull the balloon out so you have room for your fingers. Now your puppet is ready to decorate.

You can decorate your puppet any way you like. Make a body out of a piece of fabric or make glasses out of pipe cleaners. Now your puppet is ready to perform!

making hand puppets ~ written By K Khatri. 2001

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