Homemade Puppet Theatre
Have you ever thought about making a homemade puppet theatre for your children? It can be a great half-term craft activity for the holidays!
Using an old cardboard box, you can design a great play theatre for your children’s toys at very little cost. A great craft activity to get children involved in decorating too! Read on to find out how I made one for my children.
Check out my Cardboard Box Doll’s House craft activity here too.
All you’ll need is a large cardboard box and some craft supplies to decorate it with.
Here’s what I used:
1. A large cardboard box
2. Scissors
3. Paint
4. Sellotape
5. Glue
6. Embellishments such as stickers, cut out patterns and shapes
7. Sequin craft fabric for theatre curtains (optional extra)
8. An old piece of curtain wire with hooks (optional extra)
Step 1
You need to bend your box so that it can stand up. This may involve folding parts near the floor and sellotaping them into place.
Next cut a large rectangular-sized hole in the top of your puppet theatre and neaten up the edges by trimming any excess cardboard with scissors.
Step 2
Paint your puppet theatre and allow to dry. (I used an old tester pot of paint but even water-based paint would do). Then you can start to decorate it!
I used designs relating to the theatre, movies and the arts that I found from Google and simply printed and cut them out to stick on to the front of the puppet theatre.
The box I used had a slightly indented section near the bottom so I used this part to paint flowers on. I used foam stickers to make the flowers 3D and to add more textual interest. I used glitter gel pens to make the flower stems.
Step 3
Now this step really is optional for those of you who want to go the extra mile with your theatre! And that step is… adding theatre curtains!
I sourced some red sequin fabric on amazon and sewed them onto an old piece of curtain wiring. I then used ribbon to create an open-closed curtain situation at the back of the theatre! It worked and looked good from the front but looked quite messy at the back. Perhaps you could make an open-closed curtain using wiring or string.
Simply using sellotape or a glue-gun to stick your curtain up will be equally as effective and dramatic.
I hope that you enjoy making this puppet theatre at home! You can have hours of fun with puppets doing shows for family and friends. If you don’t have puppets then children can just use normal soft toys such as teddy bears or even dolls, it won’t matter too much as it will all be fun to do!
