cartoon stick puppets - The Craft Train

Cartoon stick puppets are a super-simple craft you can put together in five minutes.

Use them for role plays, puppet shows, or even to talk about emotions and empathy with kids. Or just for fun!

You might also like these paper roll empathy dolls

I was pretty excited last week to share a set of free printable googly eyes for crafting. The printable eyes are designed to be an eco-friendly replacement for the buckets of little plastic eyes that get used in crafts every day.

The cartoon eyes are not just more responsible though — they’re also more expressive and have way more personality. These craft stick people are a fun way to showcase that.

Make some as a DIY toy or as a way to talk about and role-play different emotions.

When you’re finished playing with your puppets you can even pull them apart and reuse the sticks and eyes into other craft projects because they’re held together with blu-tack.

How to make cartoon stick puppets

You will need

jumbo craft sticks
printable googly eyes – printing them onto card stock works best
coloured construction paper
scissors
blu-tack
optional lead pencil

How to

Choose a set of eyes that best suits the emotion of the puppet you want to make. Cut them out.
Cut out a cool piece of hair from coloured paper. Anything goes, you can fringe it, make it spiky, curly or whatever. You might like to sketch the shape first, but you don’t have to.
Cut out a mouth from red paper, representing the emotion of your stick puppet.
Attach the pieces to your craft stick using blu-tack. If you prefer, you can make them with craft glue instead, but you will need to add in drying time for your puppets.