Caroline
Welcome to our alligator puppet craft! Get ready to create your very own snappy, fun and friendly alligator puppets. With just a few simple materials, you’ll bring these awesome reptiles to life – perfect for storytelling, pretend play, or just making some silly gator faces. Let your creativity run wild as you design your puppet and imagine the adventures your alligator will have!
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Supplies you will need:
- #10 envelope
- green cardstock
- green paint
- sponge brush
- reptile skin stencil (HERE and HERE on Amazon look similar to what we used.)
- googly eyes
- white paper
- scissors
- glue
Step-by-step tutorial:
1. Prepare the envelope
Get your #10 envelope ready for your DIY alligator puppets. Fold your envelope in half making a crease in the middle of the envelope and then unfold it. Open up the envelope and cut down the center of the envelope on the side with the envelope seal.
2. Seal envelope & and make a slit
Seal the envelope shut on both sides. Fold the envelope again and you’ll have a slit cut down the center of the envelope. Now on the top folded section, make a slit on each side of the envelope about 1/2 – 1 inch to give a little more room for your hand. Set this envelope portion aside.
3. Make alligator mouth
Fold your green cardstock in half and cut out the shape of an alligator mouth that will fit over your folded envelope. Since you folded your paper before cutting you should now have two separate mouth pieces, one for the top of the mouth and one for the bottom.
4. Paint cardstock to make alligator skin
Use your alligator print stencil, green paint and sponge brush to paint both of your alligator mouth pieces. The stencil we had was a bit small so I held it in place for my daughter, then she dabbed her brush, then I moved the stencil and she dabbed her brush again, etc. Let the paint dry completely.
5. Glue details for eyes
While your paint is drying, use the remainder of your green cardstock, fold a small section of it and cut out a half circle along the fold, twice. You’ll glue one of the sections down on your alligator head leaving one half pointing up for your alligator eyes.
6. Glue alligator face and envelope together
When your paint is finished drying, open up your envelope and glue one of the alligator face sections down on each half of the envelope. When you fold the sections together, the cut open slit of the envelope should be on the end of the alligator face, where you can slide your hand inside.
7. Glue eyes & teeth
Finish your DIY alligator puppet by gluing on your green eyes and your googly eyes on those. Then cut out white triangle teeth and glue them on the inside of your alligator mouth. Finally, use a black marker to draw nostrils on your DIY alligator puppets.
Now your alligator is all ready for play! Simple place your thumb in the bottom section of the envelope and your other four fingers in the top section of the envelope. Open and close your thumb and fingers together to make your alligator mouth chomp, chomp, chomp, open and close.
