The weather has been so warm and nice that we play outside ever chance we get, but when it’s too cold or rainy the kids get so bummed that they have to stay inside. On these particular days, I feel like I need to be extra creative to come up with something fun and exciting for them to do. We usually just do the rice construction site, but I wanted to do something new and exciting the last “stuck inside” day. So I rummaged through my sock drawer for something the boys could use to make sock puppets. I found some winter fuzzy socks I rarely wear. I went to my craft drawer and found some left over black pipe cleaners from my halloween witch wreath, some neon felt pieces and some bright colored pom-poms. I pulled out the hot glue gun and we got to work. . .
Supplies
- Fuzzy Sock
- Felt
- Cardboard
- Glue Gun
- Add-ons, optional
Start by cutting out a mouth from a cardboard snack box. (I used a teddy graham box from the pantry. I like that it had a white side for the inside of the mouth. This way I didn’t need to worry about words showing through my felt.) I traced a child’s cup to make an oval.
Fold the cardboard in half and cover both sides of the cardboard with felt.
Cut open the sock along the toe seam. Place mouth insert into sock and hot glue into place by rolling the outside of the sock under and gluing.
For the eyes, I used a medicine cup and traced on cardboard. Then I covered both sides of the cardboard, just as I had for the mouth. Cut a small slit where you want your eyes to be and hot glue into place by rolling the outside of the sock under and gluing. Note: I have seen others use pom-poms for the eyes, but I didn’t have any so I used cardboard covered felt.
Now begin adding on whatever your child wants. We threaded a few pipe cleaners through the top to make “crazy hairs”. On the hairs we added different colored pom-poms. 
We glued a matching pom-pom on for a nose. We then thought it would be fun to make crazy eyebrows to match the hairs. {One puppet designer, child, wanted normal eyebrows, the other wanted crazy ones.}
Now sit back and let them put a show on for you and get ready to have some laughs. The boys love their puppets, Fluffy and Ralphie, that they helped make and have had hours of fun so far. 
Now go sort through your craft drawer and see what fun embellishments you have for your kids to add on to their own fuzzy puppet.
{If you don’t have any fuzzy socks in your house, I just noticed Walmart has them on clearance to get ready for summer. We just bought 2 pairs -4 socks- for $2. That makes each puppet only 50 cents. Awesome!}
