Puppets, whether string-attached or worn in hand/fingers, are cute and fun toys enjoyed by most kids and adults as well. They are evergreen, come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but with a hefty price tag. So today we are making finger puppets, low on budget and fun to put on.

I have made animal puppets, you can either create the same or other characters of your choice by following the same guideline as they are fairly easy to create.

Things you need:

1. Felt pieces of various colours (depending on the character you are making).

2. White and hot glue

3. Googly eyes

4. White paper

5. Pencil

6. Scissors

Note: There are two methods of making finger puppets: you can draw the outline of an overall figure including the head (picture 2); or draw the body and the head separately as in picture 3. It all depends on how you like your finger puppet to be. I have made puppets with both methods and found the first method relatively easy.

Directions:

1. When you are done drawing the basic shape of your character, cut it out. Then cut out two similar shapes from the felt sheet by using the paper template, (the front and the back of puppet), picture 4.

2. For instance, for tiger puppet, I cut out the basic shape by using the first method, then cut out the tummy part and tiny tiger lines (its print), see picture 5.

3. Paste the lines on the respective area on the front piece of puppet and paste the googly eyes, leave it aside, picture 6.

4. Glue the edges of the other felt piece of tiger, picture 7.

5. Paste the front piece of felt on it, the tiger puppet is ready, pictures 8 and 9.

6. Similarly, to make the panda, I cut out the basic shape of head and body (method 1) and cut out eyes, ears and paws from black felt, picture 10.

7. You can either paste googly eyes or use a white correction pen as shown in picture 11.

8. For giraffe and frog, I used the second method, which needs more work, because you have to cut out the head shape accurately and paste it on the basic body shape, see picture 12 and 13 for your reference.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 10th, 2019