Owl Puppet Tutorial

I promised some how-to info from the owl party, so here's how I made the owl finger puppets and the favor bags. The party was inspired by this book, which is Thing Two's favorite. 

He especially likes the owl finger puppet, and looking at it I thought it looked easy enough to make. I used felt from Hobby Lobby, just the kind you buy in sheets (usually 4/$1).  I decided to make some the same as the book--facing sideways, and some facing forward. 

*If you would like to use my patterns for the two owls, go here to download and print.*

You need to cut out two body pieces, but make sure to sew everything to the top piece before putting them together. I did decide to glue on the eyes, so I left those off until the end. You could also use googly eyes if you wanted to. I'm paranoid about those being a choking hazard, since my sister knows a child who just have to have a procedure to remove a goole eye from his throat after he ate if off a cupcake. yikes! If you are making several you can play with your color combos. I love the colorfulness of these guys.

For the side-facing ones: on the top body piece only, sew on the top and inside of the wing and feet. 

Then put the front and back together and sew around the owl from where you left off. This should leave the bottom open, but it will look like you sewed all the way around because yo did that part before adding the back.

Use tacky glue or hot glue to attach the eyes and beak.

The other owls are basically the same, just sew on two wings instead of one.

Then sew from the bottom of one wing, around the top and to the bottom of the other, again leaving the bottom open.

Glue on eyes and beak. I used tacky glue the first time, and some were fine, but some of the beaks did come loose, so I think hot glue might be the better option.

The back looks like this. No stitching where the feet are, so you can use as a puppet.

For the pupils I dipped the end of a small paint brush in some acrylic paint. You can test it out on another piece of felt so you can see how big you want them to be.

And there you go-- little owl finger puppets.

To make the tree for them I just found a dead branch outside and clumped up some play-doh (that was already getting dry) around the bottom.

I stuck it to the bottom of a small terra-cotta pot

and covered with river rocks (also from Hobby Lobby)

Nice little owl tree.

I saw these bags on Pinterest in a few different places actually. So I started making them as directed, and then realized that if you fold the back of the top behind you can get little owl ears. Just cut off the sides to make the top a pyramid.

Fold the back piece backward and the front piece forward. Then you are left with these little inside triangles.

 Fold those down flat and then bend them over the front and back of the bag.

Then the ears should look like this.

That's all my how-to. Hope I didn't bore you too much, or give you carpal tunnel from scrolling.

Thanks for reading!

-Haley