Paper Character Puppets

Here’s a fun kids project to beat the summer heat! Make your own paper character puppets. Kids will have a blast coloring homemade paper puppets inspired by their favorite characters. Best of all, after this fun art project, kids can put on their own puppet show!

To make paper character puppets, first print off medium-sized characters. You can find your kids favorite characters by searching Google Images for coloring pages. My daughter chose to make puppets using Big Hero 6 characters. Baymax easily became her favorite character over the Disney princesses and even Tinkerbell.

Color and Cut Out Paper Puppets

To make your own character puppets, use Google Images to search for and print off character coloring pages. You can use the printing size scale, such as 60%, to size each character to a medium size. Next, cut out each character, leaving a generous border, and color within the lines. Kids can use colored pencils, markers, even paint to decorate their puppets. Get as creative as you want!

Laminate the Puppets

Once you color each character puppet, cover both sides of the cutout with packing tape, overlapping the tape to cover the whole character. You could also use contact paper. This will also make the puppet durable and water resistant.

Easy Kids Puppet Craft

Finally, tape each character puppet onto a popsicle stick or wooden skewer. Kids can hold the sticks to make the puppets move or appear to walk.

This easy project is simple for toddlers and kids to do. Furthermore, kids can use safety scissors to cut out their puppets and learn fine motor skills.

Once you have the technique down, you can make a variety of paper character puppets! Just print off your favorite characters from a simple Google Image search, size them to a medium size within your printing app, and color them in!

One additional tip is to print character puppets on cardstock to make them thicker.

Create a Puppet Show

After designing the puppets, kids can create their own puppet show. A cardboard box makes a wonderful puppet stage! Alternately, share your puppets with friends during a playdate. These DIY paper character puppets are a creative and fun kids craft!