Pop-Up Puppets

SOURCE: http://mommymeatloaf.blogspot.com/2010/03/peek-boo-puppets.html

Start off with a wooden dowel. Take a styrofoam ball and stick it on the end of the dowel to form a head (I guess it would really be the skull since it will be covered, but anyway...) Then, take a plastic cup, cut out the bottom, and slide it up onto the stick.


Next, take a sock (I used an old one because its cheaper than buying one) and slide it over the ball, down the dowel, and up over the cup. The sock needs to be hot-glued to the cup. Before you glue it, make sure the cup is all the way at the end of the dowel; this is so you have room to move the puppet up and down when its finished. If the sock is longer than the cup, just cut the sock.

Now you want to take fabric, felt, or whatever and cover the cup.

Ok, so on to the fun part. You can use felt cut-outs, wiggly eyes, pom-poms, pipe cleaners,or whatever else you want to make a face and decorate your puppet. This is a part thats fun for the kids. Now of coarse, they can't use the hot glue gun, but you can give them Elmer's and let them go crazy. The Elmer's doesn't stick so well, but when they aren't looking you can use your hot glue gun and re-secure their pieces. For mine, I made curly hair by wrapping yarn around a dowel, wetting it, and microwaving until dry. Make sure to microwave at small increments (20 seconds or so) or you will burn the dowel and yarn. Trust me, I know!!