How-Tuesday: Make a Paper Finger Puppet with Crankbunny

crankbunny

Story by crankbunny

Published on June 02, 2009 in Make

Photo by crankbunny

Norma Toraya, a.k.a. crankbunny, is the queen of nostalgic paper crafts. Her new book, Paper Puppet Palooza, is a storybook how-to on making paper puppets and incorporating paper puppet techniques into your own existing work. It is a book for artists, crafty people, hobbyists, teachers, animators, parents, youngsters, puppeteers, rainy day victims, and those who are just into curious creative exploration. The main character in the book, Paul “Peppo” Palooza, guides the reader through each of the step-by-step illustrated projects with a cast of other imaginative paper puppet characters.

Paper Puppet Palooza also showcases various artists who incorporate book techniques into their own artwork, including Etsy artists Lindsey Carr, a.k.a. littlerobot, Sara Guindon, a.k.a. thepinpals, and Gwenaëlle Gobé, a.k.a. gounie.

Today crankbunny will show us how to make a paper finger puppet. Download the template here and get started!

Jacques Le Koolmaine loves the summer and riding his unicycle to various summer parties and beach picnics. He carries his picnic bounty in his basket, with a loaf of bread for sandwiches and bottles of refreshing beverages. He’s always showing off and doing daring balancing tricks while on his way to his next summer adventure.

Jacques is a paper finger puppet you can cut out and put together easily. He has various moving joints and different ways of customizing for optimum fun.

Materials & Tools

Scissors
Cutting knife
Glue
8 mini brads
1 plastic drinking straw
1/8 inch (3 mm) hole punch
3×3 inch (7.6 cm) piece of Chipboard/cardboard (approximate in size)
Template printed onto very thick paper/card stock

Instructions

1. Transfer the template to thick paper. Carefully cut out all of the puppet pieces. Make sure to cut out the two finger holes, too!

2. Fold the SPACER piece in half and cut out the small dash triangle from it.

3. Cut with your cutting knife along the black line of the basket piece to create a simple way to slot your bread and bottle pieces into the basket.
4. Take the bicycle wheel (Part K) and trace it over the piece of cardboard. Cut the traced circle shape out of the cardboard. Roughly cut out an additional hole into this part so that it looks like an O. Glue this O shape to the back of your bicycle wheel (Part K) with some glue.

5. Use the paper punch to make the holes marked on all of the parts.

6. Match each hole by the letters (A to a, B to b). Place the lowercase-letter hole under the uppercase hole. Tightly join the matched pieces with a brad, with the exception of E & e and K & k. These joints should be stiff.

7. Join set parts E & e and K & k with a brad. Before fastening the back of the brad, slip the brad ends into the cutout wedge of the spacer. Spread and fasten the brad prongs against the spacer. Then remove the spacer so these joints are nice and loose.

8. Flip your paper puppet over. Cut a 3 inch (7.6 cm) piece of plastic drinking straw. Glue the straw to the back of the unicycle seat post. Allow to dry completely.

9. Your paper puppet is now complete and ready to play with. Put your pointing and middle finger through the back of the paper puppet holes. Use the rest of your fingers to grab onto the back straw gently for leverage while wheeling around town or your desk.

Puppet Possibilities

  • Make your own fun items for the basket: anything can be slotted into the paper basket! Cut out items that fit from magazines or draw out your own objects that you’d like to put in it.
  • Fold up your paper puppet and include it in summer time party invitations! Jacques is perfect for birthday parties, family gatherings at parks, or any invite you want to add some pizazz to. (Yes, I actually used the word “pizazz.”) The puppet will fit in a standard size A7 5×7″ inch (12.7×17.8 cm) greeting card envelope.
  • Replace the rider’s head with a photo of a friend’s head (and then make fun of them)! Cut out a photo or do some Photoshop-Inkjet printing wizardry and attach the head on with glue. Just make sure the head is around the same size, or it might look a little funny. I went with the Mona Lisa!


Need more of a paper puppet fix? We do, too. Join crankbunny for our weekly Craft Night next Monday, June 8th in our online multi-user chat room, the Virtual Labs or in person at the Etsy Labs in Brooklyn!

More crafty project downloads can be found in our How-Tuesday series on the Etsy blog! And did you know that you can buy Supplies on Etsy?

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