Easier Bird Puppet

Well here is another bird puppet but an simpler version your kids can easily make with just a bit of help from Mom or Dad. With a pull of the string it flaps its wings. Kids seem to really love these projects.

Materials Required:

-white posterboard or manila tag, you could also use a paper plate for the wing sections

-2 brass paper fasteners

-string

-paint

-paintbrush,water

-potato

-bead

-straw (optional)

- pencil and/or marker

To start you need to draw out your body and wings. Now you can make this bird any size you wish. You need to place to marks for holes in the body and then in the corresponding wings.

You can check out the template here (flying bird) but you will find it on the small size so you might want to enlarge it.

Paint in your bird using whatever color you desire....we are using tempura.

When you are finished painting let dry.

I wanted some extra details for this bird so I cut up some potato stamps...what kid doesn't love to use potato stamps.

Using liquid tempura or acrylic craft paint stamp on your details....I use foam plates to hold the paint but in the interest of the environment I use these over and over...you can wash them after using water based paint or with acrylics I just let them dry and put more paint on over top (even different colors for once acrylic is dry...its dry and won't mix with any new paint)

You can use other materials for stamping on details...here I'm using a straw to get some nice circles.

Let your bird dry and then cut out.

Punch your holes...for the big holes I use a hole punch and for the little holes I use an awl but you can use a heavy needle, a bent paper clip or even a sharp pencil. Attach your paper fasteners going from the front of the bird..thru the wing and then loosely bending back....if they are too tight the wings will have difficultly moving.

Fully extend the wings and then attach a string from one small hole in the wing to the other..knot tightly.

Now take a long piece of string...depending on the size of your bird you want it to be long enough to be doubled and still hang a good 3 inches from the bottom of the bird.

Loop it over the middle of your string that is between the wings...you want to get it as close as you can to the middle so the movement of the wings is balanced.

Knot into place.

Attach a bead at the bottom so you have something to pull on to make the puppet work.

Make a loop with some extra string and tape to the back of the head for hanging.

That's it another bird puppet. Using this same method for the mechanism you can make a variety of puppets.

Give it a try and I'll see you next time.

gail