Monday, January 4, 2010

"I See a Monster" Sock Puppets!

Last month was my nephew's 1st birthday. I thought about what I wanted to get him, and I knew I wanted to do something that was a little more personal than a store bought toy. I can't remember where I saw this idea but I came across something similar to this:


You give the gift of The Very Hungry Caterpillar  book along with a sock puppet that looks like the caterpillar, and food with holes in it that he can eat through.

I liked that idea and went to my local Walmart and found a book I knew a little one year old boy would love:
This book is a touch and feel book all about the different kinds of monsters this little boy sees.


If you click on the book it will take you to Amazon, but it was cheaper at Walmart. Then again, what isn't cheaper at Walmart? 

So I went over to the socks department and picked out a few monsters from the book that I liked and thought I would give it a go at making resembling sock puppets.

SOCK PUPPET TUTORIAL


Materials Needed:
Fuzzy Sock(s)
hot glue and glue gun
cardboard
felt
googly eyes

pom poms (optional)
pipe cleaners (optional)



I couldn't find any fuzzy socks that were long so I had to get a few pairs of ankle socks.

 

I cut a hole into the toe of one and hot glue them together like this (sorry the picture is a different pair- I forgot to take the first picture until after the puppet was already made):


IMPORTANT TIP: I found that when you are gluing the two socks together, it helped to have your fingers stretch the socks out as the glue was drying, otherwise it would dry and not be able to stretch at all when you try to put it on. You may get a few glue gun burns, but its not really a good project unless you do right?!?


Then I cut an oval out of cardboard ( I think I just used an empty snack box from my pantry) and I just eye-balled the size I wanted. This will be the inside of your puppet's mouth:




Then I hot glued some felt onto the cardboard. I used a different color than the sock itself so it would stand out. (Think Sesame Street puppets).




Then I cut the toe off of the top of the puppet, adjusted the cardboard so that it would work as a mouth. I folded the cardboard so that it was similar to the shape of my hand shaped as a C:





and then I glued the edges of the sock to the cardboard as if it were sewn (the outside of the sock was rolled under and glued):




Now comes the fun creative part. Decorate your puppet however you want using googly eyes, pom pom balls, felt, and pipe cleaners. I ended up making three puppets and here's the finished results:







Enjoy!



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8 comments:

  1. These are so cute! I love the red one with the teeth!! I am now going to have to find some fuzzy socks!! So fun! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. those are darling! I would love to feature these on my baby and kids items feature coming up. I will let you know when it posts!

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  3. I am featuring this on my site next Monday! Come see yourself in the spotlight!
    -Steph

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wahoo! We can't wait. Thanks so much! One more thing to mention- the last puppet looks a lot like a giraffe. You could make all the puppets different animals in a zoo like a lion, zebra, monkey, etc. Thanks for the comments!

    ReplyDelete
  5. We are the publisher of I See A Monster and think these are so cute! Would you let us do a blog post featuring this idea with your pictures (I'd link back to your post and credit you) on our blog?

    lee.becknell@dalmatianpress.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know how on earth I missed this comment. Please do! If you are still interested just let me know. We would love for you to feature this. Thanks for your interest!

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