Elf Yourself Puppets Free Templates Patterns and Printable

One more post before Christmas. I did not plan this one but I wanted to do some "Elf Yourselves" with my grand kids. I looked for some free patterns but I did not find any really good ones, so I decided to make my own. I had so much fun making memories with my grandbabies! The three year old did need a little more help but he still had a blast! It is almost Christmas so tell your friends so they don't miss out of this fun activity with there little ones.

 

Aren't they cute!

I did not want to just print them to save on ink, these have so much color! I think the card stock looks better anyway. However we did print the hands, ears and faces. 

There are three full sheets to this set. The finished elf is about 20 inches tall. One sheet is the printable hands and ears and they should be printed on card stock. Then you will need to take a picture of your child and that should be printed on card stock as well. 

Then there are two sheets of patterns. Just print these on standard copy paper and use repositional glue to adhere them to colored card stock. Cut them out and peel off the patterns. To do the stockings, I just cut strips of red with my paper cutter, glued them across both legs and then trimmed the stripes off to the edge of the legs. We then added glitter glue to jazz them up! 

Feel free to pin the picture of the boys above but Get the pattern at my little etsy store! 

Enjoy!

Basic Theater and Puppet Instructions:

Printing:

My images should show pretty large on the internet unless your browser resizes them to fit the window. If you received your image by email, some email programs will resize them for viewing as well. So in your email program, if you right click the picture and save it will be smaller and it will not print as clearly. To make sure you are getting the original image right click on each paper clip. A list should appear, choose “save as” and save the image to your hard drive. My pictures is usually a good place to save them. The smaller bonus images will need to be copied and pasted onto a sheet the size of an actual collage sheet for these instructions to work. If you start a blank page you can copy and paste it onto the sheet and fill up the sheet as your collection grows.

Use your photo program to open them since they are in a .jpg picture format. Once you have them on the screen in your photo program, hold down the “Ctrl” key and at the same time press the “P” key. This will open your printer settings. Make sure that you choose ... under quality choose “best” and make sure that the “fit to page” box is checked. Then choose the paper type you are using

I print my images on brochure paper or you can use a light weight photo paper also. I always use a laser printer because it has a finish that is like what you would find on a commercial game board and it is resistant to splashes and spills. An added bonus is that the ink will not run when it gets wet so if you use a water base glue, your safe :))

Laminating the imagines to matt board:

For all my facades and puppets I like to laminate them to a light weight matt board. If you do it right, it will be hard to tell it from a die cut image.

You can purchase medium or light weight matt board at your local office supply store or just use the light weight gift boxes you get at the dollar store. Even a cereal box will work.

I used spray glue on the back of the image and on the matt board, sandwiching them together. Make sure to smooth them from the center of the sheet to the edges so you don't have any bubbles or wrinkles. Then cut them out and sand the edges with a emery board. Be sure to use the heavy ones for artificial nails.

Once the edges are sanded smooth, use a marker on the edges of all you pieces. I use a skin tone for the puppets but sometimes for the clothing section of the puppets and for the theaters I would use a color matching it to the main color of the image. They also look great with the edges done with a gold paint pen. Be sure to angle the marker or pen from the back side so you do not accidentally mark the front of the image and only color the cut edges. That way no one will see cut cardboard edges and it gives it a commercial looking finish. On the theater facade, I covered the backside with scrap booking paper also. That way the theater would still look nice from the backside as well.

For most of my theaters I print two copies of the facade and select elements from the second copy. Then I laminate the elements to matt board as described above and glue on to the top of the  full facade giving it a layered pop out. I would choose things like the, pillars, the bottom of the stage, the fascia and so on. This will gave the theater a little dimension but of course they still look great with out this extra layer. Then just embellish as desired. You can add glitter, little scrapbook flowers, brass charms, feathers or what ever fits your piece. The main thing is to have fun and make it your own :)  

For larger puppets and if I am making a diorama display, I use brads on the puppets and make little wire stands. To make the stands I start with about 12 inches of wire and I twist the top like a paper clip then the bottom into a stand like the picture. Then I a flattened paper ring on the back of the puppet for the stand to hold to. This also works for the wire wands. This makes it easy to convert them from display puppets to performers in "the show". For smaller puppets and jumping jacks it is better to use embroidery floss and tie knots threw punched holes. Then you can just jiggle them around for your show. The most important thing is to have fun... making it and preforming the shows as well!

These are a little worse for wear as my grandchildren have used them for play for several years.


 

Punch & Judy Free Printable

I do have a free printable for you but first let me show you what I have been working on. As much as I wanted to get my nutcracker theater done this year, I needed to make sure this was done for Christmas. The two main puppets were from an early 1800's magazine and were so poorly printed it literately took me weeks to complete them.

Someone very special to me, who happens to be a big Punch & Judy fan, is going to get a kit for this for Christmas. I have had the theater printed larger than my printer will print but I am going to print the puppets large myself. Then I will put it in a special box I am working on with the chip board, brads, glue and so on so that she can make it herself. The graphic's for this are now available in my little etsy store.

As you know... I usually try to make my free image go along with whatever I am working on so I have a cute little Punch and Judy free printable for you. I thought it would make a great invitation to your show or Punch & Judy birthday party, or as I have used it to create a box lid for the little theater to go into.

If you check it out in its larger version, I think you will be able to tell how clear I can make these vintage images :)

Feel free to pin the thumb above but please do not pin the actual download. I would like everyone to stop by here to download it so they don't miss all my other fun free downloads.

 

I also would like to post a little history on Punch and Judy:

 

May 9, 1662 is the day that is credited as Punch's birthday as that was the first recorded day his show was preformed in Britain. The British show developed into "Punch and Judy" with its first published script in 1827.  However the show was preformed in the 1700 in Italy only the puppets had a different names, Pulcinella and his wife Joan. 

 He speaks in a distinctive squawking voice, assisted by a "Bottler", who encouraged to participate and collecting money. The Bottler also played accompanying music or sound effects usually on a drum. Today it is preformed often in private parties and is fun for all ages.

Vintage French Pierrot Marionette Clown Puppet

I have been so crazy busy! I did do a couple new collage sheets for circus theme art and gosh the examples the ladies on the list made are extraordinary! I have also done a new vintage puppet sheet with this guy on it.... now available in my little etsy store.


 

 

The Count's Castle

I have been working on this for some time now. I actually started the graphic's for it last year. I had wanted to do it for Halloween but time flew by and I knew I was not going to make it. So I started a Nutcracker theater, thinking I would have time to get that done before the Christmas season. Well that did not happen...lol
 

So off season or no I tend to work on my holiday projects year round because as you know by now, if I don't then it doesn't get done :)) I am calling this one "The Counts Castle" but I do intend to make some completer sheets for it in the future. Then it can be dressed for "The princess and the pea, Sleeping Beauty (a friends idea) and yes of course Haunted Halloween! It also might be a fun place for Marie Antoinette and her court to live.For those of you who have purchased the digital kit from my little etsy store, I also wanted to do a quick rundown on how I made it. I started with an old jewelry box from the local thrift shop. Then I cut a hole in the top. I left this kinda big so that it would be easy for little hands to maneuver the puppets.
 

Then I covered the box with the brick paper also in the kit. My box measured 7 inches high and 10 wide so the background paper was longer than the interior wall. Instead of wallpapering it to the back and bending it around the corners, I bowed it and just glued it in along the sides. I loved how it gave it a real theater feel.
 

I did the puppets, facade and the towers as I always do. I printed them on brochure paper but you can also use a light weight photo paper. Then I used spray glue to attach it to a medium weight matte board. You can purchase medium weight matt board at your local office supply store or just use the light weight gift boxes you get at the dollar store. Cut all the pieces out and sand the edges with a emery board..the heavy ones for artificial nails.
 

I curled the towers up and attached them to the sides. You can make them more pliable by pressing it against the corner edge of a table, in a sawing motion move the tower from side to side and it will start to curl, then go ahead and roll it into a tube. This way you will not get any wrinkles or bends in the matt board. Be sure to use a marker on the edges of all you pieces too. That way no one will see cut cardboard on the edges. If you do it right, it will be hard to tell it from a die cut image.

I have used some little wire puppet stands for display I used the picture from My Gotcher theater so you can see what the stands look like. Wands for "The show" and stands for display :) Don't forget to put a tab on the back of your doll to hook your wand to.

 

Alice In Wonderland Theater

First of all I have to apologies for not posting this week but I was just so obsessed with the making of Wonderland.

I have wanted to make this one for some time and I am celebrating its completion 

 The graphic's for the facade front and all the puppets are entirely from John Tenniel illustrations, who illustrated the Lewis Carrol books. There is one exception... I did use scans of the book spines too. The columns are taken from an illustration in "Threw The Looking Glass". I overlaid the column over the book spines from the image where Alice and the frog stand before the door that says "Queen Alice". The rest of the theater graphic's are from various images from both books. In the making of the puppets, I tried to stay true to the artist but did make some necessary line changes by combining two or more original images so that I could articulate them. The graphic's for this is available in my etsy store. This is a little larger than you would think. I saved the images to my camera disk (but you could use a flash drive) and took it to my local printer and had the theater facade printed on a large format printer 11 X 14. I did not enlarge the puppets, they are just printed on standard paper the size they come. I left them large in case you wanted to use them as paper dolls. If your going to make a smaller theater you will need to size them down 50 %

I used an old jewelry box found at my local thrift shop for the base. After cutting slots in the top for the puppets to dangle through, I covered it with scrapbooking papers and added some model railroad turf on the top.

I made wire wands to manipulate the puppets with (you can see them laying in front of the theater in the last of the theater photos) However since I wanted to display it like a diorama when it was not show time, I also made little stands for each puppet. The little tea table is available to print below!I have indented to do a tutorial on how I do the theaters and there puppets but life just keeps getting in the way and I still don’t have it done.
Here is a quick synopsis of how I do it... I use spray glue to attach the graphics to a light weight matte board...like the gift boxes you would find at the dollar store. Then I cut them out and sand the edges with a emery board. I then use a marker or paint pen to color the edges of the cardboard ( I use a skin tone for the dolls but for the theater I would use a matching color ) ... angle the marker or pen from the back side so you do not accidentally mark the front of the image and color the edges. On the theater facade, I covered the backside with scrapbooking paper so that the edges that extended past the “theater box” would still look nice from the backside of the theater. I did the little table much the same only I spray glued it to a light weight tin. I just bought a large tin at the thrift shop and used the lid from it. Then I cut it out with kitchen shears and sanded the edges smooth with a metal fingernail file. This way it will support the weight of the tea set.

I had two copies of the facade printed on photo paper then laminated them to chip board. The I cut out elements from the second copy and glued them on top of the first layer. Like the frog and fish. This popped them out of the background and gave it a little dimension.

The little flower faces were made last year at an art retreat I went to with Artistic Souls. I knew I would use them someday :)) The tree was purchased at hobby lobby's floral department. Then I untwisted the bottom and re-twisted it to look like tree roots.

Now for the goodies! Below is the Tea Table I used ... be sure to click on the image for the larger printable version.

Enjoy!

For The Love Of Theater

I have been under the weather so I have not done much of anything but sleep. As I was looking thought my pictures I realized that I had not blogged this. I think I had planned on saving it because I am working on a new free workshop for little theaters and some of the pictures taken during the construction of this one will be use. But I decided to share it because I have also finished another little theater I can share when I get the workshop finished.

 

This on was also done from a reclaimed drawer out of an old jewelry box. I used my dremel to expand the hole into a slot where the nob was. That way the little puppet can be lowered through the slot and the little handle can be used to make her dance.

 

Step by step instruction will be posted as soon as I can get up and around enough to finish writing them :)

Little Asian Puppet Theater

A special gift for a special friend.

Several weeks ago I picked up an old jewelry box at the local thrift shop. I loved the handles and it had 6 drawers and a door all with hardware. After getting it home and pulling all the drawers out I thought of making a little fairy theater from the shell. Well I did not quite get to it yet with the holidays and all but I did use one of the drawers to make this mini theater for a very special friend of mine. I used my dremel to expand the hold for the handle to a slot. Then I hung my little puppet on a dowel that was slightly bigger than the slot I cut. Now you can hold onto the dowle and jiggle the little puppet to make it dance. I just love it and so did my dear friend.