One of a Kind: 1 year old

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: