Puppet Crafts for Kids

Christian Puppet Skits For Sunday School and Children's Church Go to Puppet Skits

Easy to Make Puppet Crafts for Kids: Sock Puppets, Canvas Puppets, Lunch Bag Puppets, Stick Puppets, Hand Puppets

Sock Puppets

Easy to Make Sock Puppets - These puppets are so cheap and easy to make. You can add all kinds of features to make an endless array of puppets. Save your old socks and socks with no mates or look for used socks and accessories in second hand stores. (Directions also available in Spanish.)

What you will need: sock, hot melt glue gun, pink or red felt, cardboard from cereal box or thicker card board, chalk, scissors and paper, googly eyes, and anything else you would like to add.

What to do:

1. Print out the mouth pattern and cut out the shape from cardboard such as cardboard from a cereal box or cardboard that is a little thicker. Fold the mouthpiece in half. (Make pointy mouthpieces for animals with pointy noses such as snakes, and wolves.)

2. Insert the folded mouthpiece into the sock so that the curved ends are facing the toe end of the sock. If it is too big, cut the piece smaller to fit so that it doesn't stretch the sock too much. Place your hand in the sock as shown in Picture A so that it is comfortable. Mark on the sock with chalk 1/2" beyond the end of the mouthpiece. Cut off the end of the sock where marked.

3. Remove your hand and flatten out the sock so that the heal of the sock is on top. Cut away the extra sock material around the rounded part of the cardboard mouthpiece 1/2" from the edge. See Picture B.

4. Fold open the toe end of the sock and the cardboard mouthpiece. The mouthpiece should be laying on top of the sock with the top toe end of the sock folded up. See Picture C. Place a drop of hot melt glue in the center of the lower edge of the mouthpiece. Shown in picture C with an X. Pull the edge of the sock material over the edge of the cardboard piece and press it in place being careful not to burn yourself. See Picture D. Place another dot of glue on the top edge of the mouthpiece and pull the edge of the sock over the mouthpiece and press down. Place glue all the way around the edge of the mouthpiece a little bit at a time pulling the sock material over the mouthpiece of pressing it down as you go.

5. Cut another mouthpiece from pink or red felt for the mouth. Cut it to fit over the cardboard mouthpiece and cover the edge just a little. Glue it down. Cut out a tongue piece and glue it inside the mouth. To add other features stuff the sock puppet with scrap material to make the puppet firm. Glue on ears, eyes, teeth, and other features.

Caterpillar Puppet - Follow the directions above and then cut eight or more one-inch pompoms into rectangle shapes. Glue them to the body of the caterpillar. I used a brown Sharpie (permanent ink marker) to make the tips of the feet brown.

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Love Bug Sock Puppet

What you will need: A man's large white sock, pink fun foam, pink and white pipe cleaners, black fun foam, card stock, and white material for the wings.

What to do:

1. Print out the pattern. (Printing Problems?)

2. Use the mouth pattern to cut a mouth from heavy cardboard. Fold the cardboard mouth in half and insert it in the toe of the sock the rounded part towards the toe. Push the toe of the sock into the fold of the cardboard mouth.

3. Cut out the eyes and glue them to the head. Punch tiny hole above the eyes and insert the pipe cleaner through one hole and back up through the other hole. Fold the ends of the pipe cleaner up and bend them around a pencil. Glue heart to the end of the pipe cleaners as shown in the picture.

4. To make the wings bend pipe cleaners so the ends meet and glue the ends together with hot melt glue. Spread the wing material out flat on a newspaper. Place glue all around the pipe cleaner wing shape and press the wing shape down on top of the material. Lift up the wing so it doesn't stick to the newspaper. When the glue is dry, cut around the edge of the wing. Glue the wings to the back of the puppet as shown in the picture.

5. Cut legs from black fun foam or black poster board. Glue the legs to the front of the bug puppet. Cut a tongue from pink fun foam and glue inside the mouth.

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Easy Camel Sock Puppet

What you will need: pair of men's socks (tan), hot melt glue gun, pink and tan felt, tan fake fur, black and white fun foam, cardboard from a cereal box or thicker cardboard, chalk, scissors and paper, googly eyes, and fiberfill.

What to do:

1. Cut one of the socks as shown in the diagram at the right. Cut along the upper toe seam line so that the lower jaw of the camel is much smaller than the upper jaw.

2. Print out the patterns and cut out the mouth shape from cardboard. Fold the mouthpiece in half. Score the cardboard on the centerline and fold it in half.

3. Insert the folded cardboard mouthpiece into the sock so that the curved ends are facing the toe end of the sock. If it is too big, cut the piece smaller to fit so that it doesn't stretch the sock too much. Cut the mouthpiece smaller if it stretches the material too much.

4. Remove your hand and flatten out the sock so that the heal of the sock is on top. Cut away the extra sock material around the rounded parts of the cardboard mouthpiece 1/2" from the edge. See Picture B.

5. Fold open the toe end of the sock and the cardboard mouthpiece. The mouthpiece should be laying on top of the sock with the top toe end of the sock folded up. See Picture C. Place a drop of hot melt glue in the center of the lower edge of the mouthpiece. Shown in picture C with an X. Pull the edge of the sock material over the edge of the cardboard piece and press it in place being careful not to burn yourself. See Picture D. Place another dot of glue on the top edge of the mouthpiece and pull the edge of the sock over the mouthpiece and press down. Place glue all the way around the edge of the mouthpiece a little bit at a time pulling the sock material over the mouthpiece of pressing it down as you go.

6. Cut another mouthpiece from pink or red felt for the mouth. Cut it to fit over the cardboard mouthpiece and cover the edge just a little. Glue it down. Cut out a tongue piece and glue it inside the mouth. You may also want to add teeth cut from white fun foam.

7. To add other features stuff the sock puppet with scrap material to make the puppet firm. Cut ears from tan felt. Cut the eyes from white fun foam and draw in the iris using a black permanent marker. Cut the eyelashes from black fun foam. Cut little slits for the lashes and then pull ever other lash out so that the lashes are more separated. Glue on the eyes, eyelashes and ears.

8. Use a black permanent marker to draw on the nose.

9. Cut the toe off the end of the other sock and stuff with fiberfill stuffing. Glue it onto the back of the camel.

10. Cut out some tan hear and glue it around the front of the ears back to the hump.

11. To make the legs, cut pieces of tan felt 6" x 4" and roll up the pieces and glue along the edge. To make the hooves, cut pieces of black fun foam 1" x 4.5". Roll the pieces around the bottom of the legs and glue on.

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Felted Lion Finger Puppet This lion finger puppet was made from wool roving (unspun wool) using wet felting and needle felting techniques. Wool is wound into ball and tube shapes and then poked repeatedly with a felting needle to condense the wool and sculpt it into the desired shape. You can find directions for this craft and more on the Yarn and Wool Craft Page. ©2008, Digital by Design, Inc. -* See Copyright Information

Goose Sock Puppet for Kids or Duck Sock Puppet

What you will need: White athletic sock, orange, black and white fun foam, glue gun, and a black permanent marker.

What to do:

1. Print out the goose beak, wing and feet patterns, and cut them out. (Top Beak Pattern, Wing and Feet Pattern, and Inside Beak Pattern)

2. Glue the top beak together at the sides and flatten as much as possible.

3. Cut the toe off the sock about three inches from the middle of the heal. The heal of the sock is the head of the puppet. Mark the center of the cut off side of the sock with the heal of the sock facing up and flattened as shown in the diagram to the right. Also mark the side and bottom center. With the seam side of the top beak facing up, place the beak on the top of the sock (Heal side) as shown in the diagram. Glue the center of the beak at edge to the center of the sock cut edge with a glue gun. Let it set. Next, glue to the sides of the center stretching the end of the sock so that the side marks you placed on the sock match the sides of the beak. Turn the sock over and glue the bottom beak on the same way.

4. To glue on the inside of the beak, start by folding the beak in half and gluing the folded part to the inside edges of the top beak. Then glue the tip of the beak to the inside of the beak. And then work down the sides of the beak. You can trim the beak when you are done. Do the same thing to the bottom of the beak.

5. Glue on the wings and feet. To finish, draw some eyes with a permanent marker on some white fun foam. Cut them out and glue them to the face.

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Design-Your-Own Canvas Puppet - Use Canvas Hand Puppets from Oriental Trading Company and design your own puppet. Type in 48/3087 in the search box on the left-hand side of the page to find the puppets. They sale 12 puppets for $6.95

You can use the puppets as they are or insert a piece of cardboard cut to the shape of the mouth to make the mouth firm and easier to open and close. Print out the mouth pattern (Large file or small file) and cut it out. Place the pattern on the card board so that the fold line runs the same direction as the lines of the cardboard. This will make it easy to fold. Insert the folded cardboard into the mouth of the puppet.

Ferret Puppet - (Designed by Danielle Warvel)

What you will need: Canvas hand puppet from Oriental Trading Company (See link above), pink and black acrylic paint, card board from a box, fun foam, googly eyes, and hot melt glue gun.

What to do:

1. Prepare the puppet as directed above.

2. Print out the feet and ear patterns (Large file or small file) and cut them out. Use them to trace onto white fun foam and cut them out.

3. Glue the fun foam feet and ears to the canvas puppet and then paint the inside of the ears pink. Add a pink nose and pink tongue.

4. Glue on some googly eyes and paint on some fur with black paint or a black marker.

Larry the Lizard Puppet - (Designed by Amanda Frizzell)

What you will need: Canvas hand puppet from Oriental Trading Company (See link above), green and pink acrylic paint, card board from a box, red and white fun foam, googly eyes, and hot melt glue gun.

What to do:

1. Prepare the puppet as directed above.

2. Paint the puppet green and the mouth pink and let dry.

3. Cut out eyes, legs, and a tail shape from white fun foam and glue them to the puppet. Paint the legs and tail green.

4. Cut a tongue shape from red fun foam and glue in the mouth. Glue some googly eyes onto the eye shapes.

Canvas Dog Puppet Craft for Kids

What you will need: Cloth Puppets from Oriental Trading Company web site, (Type in 48/3087 in the search box at the top of the page to find these puppets. The cost $6.95 for 12 of them.) black felt for the nose, different colors of felt for the ears, markers, and wiggle eyes (Type in 57/4503).

What to do:

1.Cut out nose shapes from black felt, ear shapes from different colors of felt, and tongue shapes from pink felt. Color the inside of the mouth pink with a marker or crayon, glue on the nose, ears, and eyes. (You may want to do this with a hot melt glue gun.) Then color the puppet with markers. You can also add spots, whiskers, etc.

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Lunch Bag Puppets

Moose Puppet made from a Paper Cup and Brown Lunch Bag

What you will need: Brown lunch bag, 9 oz. paper cup, tan card stock, wiggly eyes, glue, brown paint, and scissors.

What to do:

1. Paint the outside of the paper cup brown. While it is drying cut out two ear shapes and legs from card stock (thick paper) and paint them brown also.

2. Trace your hands onto card stock and cut them out to make antlers. Fold the tips of the ears and glue the folded edge onto the inside rim of the glass. Do the same thing for the antlers.

3. Open up a paper bag and place your hand inside. Squeeze the bottom of the paper bag into the paper cup, flattening it out inside the cup as much as possible. Remove the bag and place glue all around the inside of the paper cup. Put the bag back into the cup and press it around the sides. When it is dry paint the bag to match the face. To finish, glue on the arms, legs, and eyes.

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 Jack and Jill Paper Bag Black Bird Puppets - These puppets can also be used as raven puppets for the story of the ravens feeding Elijah. They would make a great craft to go along with the lesson.

Copyright - While many of the crafts on this site are free, they are still copyrighted. They are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, except for local church, school, or home use only. It is illegal to copy this material and publish it on another web site even if you include the copyright notice. You must have permission to copy the material. To request permission to copy this material for any other use contact me by email.

What you will need: Lunch bag, black acrylic paint, paper, tape or glue, yellow and black construction paper, and red ribbon.

What to do:

1. Paint your bag black with acrylic paint and let it dry.
2. Print out the body patterns and cut them out. Cut the wings and hair from black construction paper. Cut the beak and legs from yellow construction paper.
3. Glue the eyes and the beak onto the bottom of the bag as shown. Glue or tape the hair onto the back of the bag for the Jill puppet. Tie a piece of red ribbon into a bow and glue it onto the hair.
4. Glue or tape the wings onto the sides of the bags and glue the legs to the top of the bag as shown.
5. Use your puppets to act out the rhyme below.

   Two Little Blackbirds

   Two little blackbirds
   Sitting on a hill.
   One named Jack
   One named Jill
   Fly away, Jack
   Fly away, Jill
   Come back, Jack
   Come back, Jill

Paper Bag Cow Puppet - See the Animal Crafts page for a pattern and directions to a cute Cow Puppet.

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Paper bag Dog Puppet Craft for Kids

Children cut out the patterns, color them, and glue them to a brown paper bag. The patterns for this craft is available to member's only.

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 Animal Hand Puppet Craft

What you will need: Construction paper, scissors, glue,

What to do:

1. Print out the patterns and cut from construction paper, frog body, frog legs, bear body, bear parts.
2. To make the body, fold each end of a piece of construction paper 3 1/2"  towards the center.  You should have a 5" x 9" folded piece of paper.  Use the appropriate pattern and cut away the extra paper.  Glue the top and where the paper overlaps together so that it forms an envelope that a child's hand can fit in.
3. Glue on the eye, hands, ears, etc.
4. 

Pig and Spider Hand Puppet Craft

1. Follow directions above.
2. Print out the patterns, pig parts, spider parts, and use the body pattern for the spider and pig bodies.  This is the same  pattern used for the bear.

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Shepherd Puppets

What you will need: Paint stick or other stick, scrap material, 1 1/4" Styrofoam ball, wiggly eyes, stick, fake hair, skin color paint, hot melt glue.

What to do:

1. To make the head cut the Styrofoam ball in half with a knife.  Paint the ball with skin color paint and let dry. When the paint is dry glue the balls onto the top of a paint stick, back to back.  Glue on some hair.  Don't worry about the back of the head because it will be covered with material.
2. Cut a piece of material 6 1/2" x 10" to make the shepherd's robe.  Use a needle and thread to sew a straight stitch across edge of one of the 10" sides. Pull the thread to gather the material just so it will fit around the paint stick.  Glue the gathered material onto the paint stick just below the head with hot melt glue. Glue the robe closed in front.
3. To make the arms cut a piece of material 7" x 7" the same color as the robe.  Roll up the  material  and glue the roll closed down the length of the roll. Fold the roll in half to find the center. Glue the roll at the center point onto the back of the craft stick just below the head.  Bring both ends of the roll around to the front to form the arms. (See the picture above).  Glue the arms in place. If you would like the shepherd to be holding a staff, glue a stick to the arms as pictured.
4. To make the head covering cut a piece of material 7" x 7" and glue it onto the head. Cut another piece of material to as a headband around the shepherd's forehead over the head covering.
5. Glue on some eyes to finish.

If you would like a skit to go along with these puppets go to Bible Themes A- C

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No-Sew Benjamin Franklin Paint Stick Puppet - This type of puppet is fairly easy to make but does take some practice. The Styrofoam ball head is attached to a paint stick. The clothes and tricorn hat are made from felt.

You will find direction to this puppet and other crafts about Benjamin Franklin on the Benjamin Franklin Craft Page.

No-Sew Betsy Ross Paint Stick Puppet

This type of puppet is fairly easy to make but does take some practice. The Styrofoam ball head is attached to a paint stick. The clothes are made from felt.

What you will need:

Head: 2 1/2" Styrofoam ball, paint stir stick (You can get them free when you buy a gallon of paint or you can buy them very cheap from a paint store.), flesh colored acrylic paint, marker, googly eyes, and brown yarn or doll's hair. (Optional - I used fast drying clay to make a nose),

Bonnet: White muslin and 1/8" blue ribbon.

Body: Flesh colored felt, blue felt, 1 yard of 1" eyelet lace, 1/4 blue ribbon, and two wooden craft spoons for the hands.

Flag: color printer, white muslin or cotton material, and iron-on transfer.

How to Make the Head

1. Press one end of the paint stick into Styrofoam ball, pull it back out, and put some glue on the end of the stick. Push the head back in and let it dry. This will keep the head from falling off.

2. Add a nose - Make a small raindrop shape out of fast drying clay, flatten out one side, put a little glue on the flat side and press it onto the head. Use an eraser or something else to smooth out the nose. Poke two holes in the bottom of the nose to make nose holes. You can even add ears or other face features in the same way if you would like.

3. Paint the whole ball flesh color. You will need a lot of paint. Use a hair dryer to speed up drying. You may need at least three coats of paint. When the face is dry glue on yarn for hair or use doll's hair.

How to Make the Bonnet:

1. Cut a six-inch circle from white muslin. I didn't worry about the raw edges, but if you want to hem the edges make the circle one inch bigger. To gather the material into a hat shape, sew a straight stitch all around the circle about 3/4" in from the edge. Gather the material into a smaller circle to fit the head by pulling the thread and bunching up the material so that it just fit the head. Tie the two ends together. Glue it to the head. Glue a tiny blue ribbon around the stitches and tie it in a bow in the front.

How to Make the Body

1. Glue some flesh colored felt around the neck area of the puppet.

2. Print out the bodice and arm pattern and cut the bodice from light blue felt. Glue the bodice around the paint stick below the head leaving a V-shape in front.

3. Cut a 7" by 9" rectangle from the same blue felt. Sew a straight stitch along the top of the skirt (the 9" side) and pull the tread tight to gather the material. Glue the skirt at the bottom of the bodice. Glue a 1/4" ribbon around the gathers at the waist. If you are using a thin material use a longer piece.

4. To make the sleeves use the arm pattern to cut two pieces of material from the blue felt. Roll up the pieces to make two wedge shapes as shown in the picture to the left. Glue some eyelet inside the wider end. Glue the sleeves right underneath the neck. To make hands draw fingers on the wide end of the wooden craft spoons. Place some glue on the thinner end and glue them to the inside of the sleeves.

5. Glue some eyelet lace around the neckline. Start at the waist. Fold under part of the lace to make it pointy at the waistline and glue it up and around the back of the neck. Bring it over the other shoulder and stuff the end behind the lace you already glued on.

6. To make the flag print out the Flag Pattern (Small Pattern or Large Pattern) onto T-shirt transfer material. (Follow the directions for your printer.) Cut it out and iron it to a white piece of material. Cut out the transferred pattern and sew a hem around the edge. Glue the flag to Betsy's hand.

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More Puppets You Can Make

Crafty Kids web site has lots of adorable, inexpensive puppet craft kits that children will enjoy making.

Good Books About How to Make Puppets