Supperhero Buttons to the rescue!

So today is my second craft book challenge and, having learnt my lesson from last week and it taking a bit longer than I expected, I decided to start before lunch time. So fingers crossed I‘ll get this blog out before 10.30pm!

After only a few seconds looking at the book shelf one particular book jumped out at me – ‘Rainy Day Puppets‘ by Denny Robson andVanessa Bailey, A Franklin Watts book. Can you guess why? No? Well according tothe publishers; Rainy Days is “an exciting new (although not so new now!) series of activity books aimed at children of a wide age range. Puppets reveals the secrets of making and operating a wide range of different types of puppet. With just a little practice, would-be puppeteers will be able to present their own show and let everyone in on the fun.”

Rainy Days Puppet Book

There were a couple of things I fancied trying to make in this book but, because we are a bit over run in our house with odd socks, I thought I would try a glove puppet! Glove puppets are very similar to sock puppets, the difference is that for a sock puppet you do not cut the sock but use your hands to move the month. A glove puppet is made using a glove and a sock to create a character with arms but no movable mouth. Who knew?!

I took some direction from the book on the items I needed, but came up with my own design. I got a sock (this really is a must have!), a glove, scissors, fabric glue, needle and thread (not a necessity) foam ball or scrunched up newspaper for the head, string or ribbon, felt/card or sticky labels for the features and any other decorations you may have lying around.

What you need

I found a foam ball so used this to put in the end of the sock for the head and then tied some blue string underneath to keep it in place. As you will see my sock is no normal sock, I found it right at the back of the drawer. It’s a toe sock! So I didn‘t need to make any hair but if you don’t happen to have a toe sock then use wool or ribbon instead.

Next I put my hand into see where my fingers would poke out and made two small little snips in the sock. I cut a cape shape out of blue felt and used some very simple stitches to hold the top of the cape in place. I also used the blue felt to make a mask and used fabric glue to stick this on along with a cheesy mouth.

I finished off my glove puppet with buttons on his cape and one on his chest.

Taa daa! All done!

Superhero Buttons to the rescue!

This was a really easy craft and there are so many designs and different ways of decorating them that any child would love this craft.

So go on – pull out some old socks this weekend and let your children come up with their own superheroes. And remember to send me photos so I can share them and your child can see their work online.