Crazy Bird Puppet

As you might imagine, we create a lot of craft projects at our house. Some of them are duds. (The balloon-powered rocket that was too small for the balloon.) Some of them become projects for the Craft Kit Club. (We can’t show you all of those just yet.) And some of them aren’t duds, but also aren’t quite right for our Kits.

Many of those successful, non-kit crafts, will get posted on this blog.  And this Crazy Bird Puppet is the first.

The good thing about the Crazy Bird Puppet is that you just might have all the supplies you need at your house.  The reason that the puppet isn’t going in a kit is that younger kids will need a lot of help to get it put together.

So if you have some free time and some nimble fingers, you and your child can give this a try.

You’ll Need:

• Empty toilet paper roll
• Empty egg carton
• Paper
• Paint and/or markers
• 2 Wooden craft sticks (small or large;  2 strips of stiff cardboard will do in a pinch)
• String or yarn cut at: 24″, 24″, 16″, 14″, 3″
• Tape and/or glue
• Pencil, piercing tool, or small hole puncher.
• 2 googly eyes (optional)
• 2 paper clips (optional)

What to Do:

1. Paint the toilet paper roll as desired and let dry.  (You can also decorate with stickers and/or markers.)
2. Cut out one cup of the egg carton for the bird’s head.  Paint and let dry.
3. Cut two wings, two feet, and one beak out of colored paper.  (See template to the right. Please note that template is not the appropriate size.)
4. You can also cut them out of white paper and paint or color them once they are cut out.
5. Glue googly eyes or draw eyes onto bird face.
6. Fold beak along dotted lines and attach to bird face.  (We found tape worked better than glue.)
7. Fold wings along dotted lines and attach to sides of bird body. (Again, tape seems to work best.
8. Punch holes: in top and bottom of head; on top of body in the front and back; two on each foot as indicated on template.
9. Attach the two craft sticks together in the middle to form a +.
10. Tie 16″ string onto the end of one of the craft sticks.  Thread the other end of the string through the hole in the back of the bird.  Tie a knot in the end of the string so that it doesn’t come out of the hole.
11. Tie 14″ string to the top of the craft stick opposite the 16″ string. Thread the bottom of the 14″ string through the hole in the top of the bird’s head and knot.
12. Use the 3″ string to attach the head to the body, threading through the holes in the bottom of the head and the front of the body and knotting.
13. For each 24″ string, tie to one of the remaining craft stick ends.  Thread string down through one hole in the foot and back up through the other.  Tape loose end of string to bird body just under the wing.
14. Adjust feet to the proper position.  We put paper clips on the feet to give them a little more weight.
15. Have fun playing with your Crazy Bird Puppet!