Stick people – woodland puppet craft tutorial
There is honestly nothing more rewarding than a craft project where the bulk of the materials are FREE! And even better, and you know this about me now, a craft project that’s ‘extended’ – and by that I mean, going out into the woods, and FORAGING those craft materials – remember – whatever you do, don’t say “let’s go for a walk” – it’s all about the “adventure!”
And the brief for that ‘adventure’? Sticks that would look a bit like a BODY – so a three pronged stick – (think, neck, head and two arms).
And then as many of nature’s accessories as you can carry for your woodland puppet creation!
Dried seed pods; feathers, acorn cups, leaves, seeds – and moss too – the more you collect, the more options you have to be creative.
We really like Air Drying Clay – as it’s so simple to use at home or in the classroom – we found a good clay without any plastic fibres too – click here: Gedeo non firing clay, which we highly recommend (you can find similar in the US click here aff. links for your convenience)
So it’s pretty simple really – see the photos for reference and inspiration.
Position your sticks – you may need to break the arms down to the right length, that sounds bad right?!
But you know what I mean…
And then select your puppets eyes, ears, and fingers as the basics.
Grab three small lumps of the air drying clay, and roll them into balls, one large and two medium for the hands.
Gently push the balls of clay onto the ends of the three pronged sticks, squeeze the clay so that it’s tight on the sticks.
Then you’ll need to act swiftly, as – guess what, the air drying clay, dries in the air!
Shape the head and add texture, or leave just as a lump – and then…..
Start assembling and creating your puppets – this is so much fun – honestly, just use your imagination, build the puppet’s faces up, and add a leafy scarf and some crazy moss hair!
Just have fun… { with thanks to Tamsin Young and @coldatnight at @fforestgather for the genius inspiration and woodland creations – we love these woodland creatures ? }
More woodland creations from Tamsin Young – pencils!
Follow the kids over on @KidsChaos_Blog on instagram and me too at @incredibusy of course!
Even more clay craft ideas here:
And if you like puppets – check out the craft stick puppets here:
I love the tribal aesthetic it kind of reminded me of the Stone Age which is pretty cool xx
I love these! They look so tribal almost and you could imagine people throughout history making them! I’d love to have a go!
What a fab craft idea. My kids would love this.
These are so cute, I remember making little things like this when I was younger x
This is just brilliant, I love Stickman and the woodlands x
What a fun way to dress up sticks. This could be a fun playtime activates for my niece. I like this idea. xx
I’ve never seen anything like this before! It’s a very interesting concept.
haa thank you I think!
These look fantastic! My kids would love this! You’re totally right, I won’t mention going for a walk but I’ll talk about adventure – walks are always met with groans!!
it’s all about the magic of language and persuasion eh Ali?!
These are so cool! What a fantastic and creative idea!
Those are utterly fantastic, each one has so much character! I don’t think they’d look out of place in an early Jim Henson film.
What a great idea, my niece and nephew would love this. They’re both into their crafts and love picking up bits like this on walks x
That looks like so much fun!!! I’d love to make them with my son and leave them dotted around woodlands 😉
hah well actually we did that! they are quite hardy, the hand fell off one of them in the rain, but you can still see them!
Oh how cute is this!!! What a fab and creative craft idea, my boys would love it. Really old-school fun!
totally old school eh?! And if you’ve not got a wood nearby, craft sticks will do – actually that gives me an idea to do a rainy day version using stuff from around the house! thanks for the inspo!
Mildly scared by the facial expressions! Haha But they look awesome! What a great crafty way to get outdoors too!
haaha sorry! they are a bit scary aren’t they?!
This is such a fun and creative craft! I really love how these stick people turned out and I love that you are using so many materials found in nature for this.
These are great – they remind me of a programme I watched as a kid which had the ‘Tree People’ in it. They looked exactly like some of these
oh my word yes Emma!
Those look like some kind of tribal characters! Fabulous idea!!!
don’t they though!!
Just like Stick Man! I have a toddler who would love this, must put it on our to-do list next time we hit the woods!
Oh Penelope – they do love a stick don’t they?!
What a great idea, and totally agree crafts with anything that doesn’t cost anything is even better, we have done various things over the years, which is probably why we never had any recycling in our bins as my Daughter would always be rooting through looking to make something x
haahaa oh yes, the ‘junk modelling box’ ie the recycling bin…
This is such a cute idea! I love the idea of using sticks to make something fun to play with (my boys are so funny with sticks!)
Sticks have always featured heavily in our lives too Harriet!