Shadow Puppet Tutorial #2: How to make Shadow Puppets from cardstock

One of my Bible character shadow puppets

Here's a tutorial on how to transfer the design and cut your own shadow puppets from black card stock. I have been making shadow puppet shows since 2006. These puppets will fit my table top theatre, the link to the Shadow Puppet Theatre tutorial is here.

What you will need:

-Black card stock or poster board ( I'm using Recollections 65 lb black card stock from Michael's)
-White transfer paper (carbon paper)
-Pencil
-Sharp scissors
-Xacto knife
-cutting mat 'self healing'
-template or drawing

cardstock-- this package is 25 sheets of just black. I also use lightweight poster board for very large puppets.

 Transfer paper: (white carbon paper) you can't beat this stuff. I bought this little packet for under $2 about 10 years ago and hundreds of puppets later, I'm still using the original sheets. It also comes in black for your other projects.
Notice this paper has 2 sides, the whiter side is where the carbon is.

For the cutting: Oops!! I forgot to put my sharp scissors in this picture! I will show them to you later. For shadow puppets, I do most of the long cuts with scissors, and switch to the Xacto knife as needed.

People needing magnifying glasses: you know who you are.  I'm right there with you.

Okay, here we go!

1. Lay a piece of transfer paper over your black card stock. Make sure the whiter side is DOWN, touching the card stock.  Lay your template on top of the transfer paper. Make sure the entire image fits onto the transfer paper and card stock.

Making sure the puppet's feet will fit on there!

2. Trace over all the template lines with the pencil.

3. The image will be a white line on the black card stock.

4. Time to cut! Start with scissors. Take your time with the hands; they are so important. If you are doing moving-arm puppets, the emotions and actions are shown with puppet hands, so get them right. I usually cut the hands into 'mittens' first. Then go in and trim the fingers with either scissors or blade. You will feel like you are giving a puppet manicure!

first cut of a moving-arm puppet's forearm

cut into a 'mitten', ready to cut out the fingers

New Foxes Cut Paper Silhouette

© Sue Small 2014

more foxes….

I have been trying out some lighter weight papers instead of my usual card stock; it is so much easier to cut.
This fox and kits scene was done with my favorite #10 Exacto blade and Hygloss silhouette paper.

New paper cuttings

Summer 2013 --  This year we decided to enlarge the garden, so that's keeping me busy. I'm also working on a few more paper cuttings, and putting some items into my Etsy shop.

doe and fawn papercut

Belted Galloway papercut

Thistle papercut

Christmas Story Shadow Puppets

Here's one of the shadow puppets from my Christmas Story shadow puppet set. This is a simple puppet show I made for a Sunday school class.  I usually work with kids from 4th grade and up for shadow puppets.  This is a good show for beginner puppetteers, since there are no moving parts on the puppets. Figure out ahead of time how the show will flow, which direction the puppets need to face. Assign puppet(s) to each child, and choose a narrator. After you run through it once or twice, let the kids trade puppets and try again. Or put on a show for another class to watch.

If you are doing this at home, invite grandma for Christmas Eve dinner and after you clear away the dinner dishes, set up the theatre, and the kids can put on the show.

Downloadable Puppet patterns are now available in my etsy shop.

The puppets can be used with my tabletop shadow theatre (see my earlier blog to make your own theatre)
The script I used can be found here:     puppet script

defiant

A couple of weeks ago I made my annual trek to the NH Highland Games at Loon Mountain and spent a wonderful day with my son, watching the sheepdog trials and listening to Celtic music. The sheepdog competition is held on a ski slope, so the animals get quite a workout.

Defiant  -    cut paper collage

..... there always seems to be one sheep that decides to challenge the dog and stands its ground...then the border collie sets to work, creeping closer, giving the "eye" until the sheep finally turns to join the rest of the flock.

Weekly illustration challenge

Recently I started participating in Illustration Friday. 

A new topic is provided on Fridays, so participants have the weekend to figure out what to do.  It's fun to go back and see what everyone came up with! There are some amazing ideas out there. 

 Here's my first 3 submissions: 

"Burst"
Cut paper illustration

"Identical"
Pen, Ink and colored pencil

"Imagination"
Cut paper illustration