New mature articulated paper puppet

My newest articulated paper puppet--Freddy the flasher!

He's creepy and he's stinky...

he likes to show his winkie...

Printed from my original illustration, digitally colored, handcut, and put together with brass brads. Watch out, Nana!

Make an articulated paper puppet

I made a new puppet today--Jack and the beanstalk (and scary Giant too) and thought I would explain how I do it. This would be a fun project for you to do with the kids. These puppets are delightful because they can move.

I use a huge pad of drawing paper because it will shrink once I make a print of it and that way, the lines will be crisp and clean. I sketch my idea with pencil first. Any parts which will be moveable, have to have extra paper so they can be connected.

Then, I ink in everything. I like to use my trusty speedball pen with removeable nibs, depending on what kind of line I would like. You can also use a crowquill pen for a finer line. I use Higgins waterproof ink, very black and stable.

I take a picture of my illustration and upload it to my computer, keeping it at full size to keep it crisp. I proceed to color it in photshop. You can skip these steps if you want to just color your puppet by hand. You can use watercolor, acrylics, crayons, anything at all.
I print out my illustration of heavy photo matte paper, then cut it out, and add the metal brads which I purchased from etsy seller, schoollocker

When I am done, this puppet can be played with or mounted as art in a shadow box--voila!