Thought I'd share a little project I finished up this last week. A puppet stage! This was for a friend of mine who's mother was creating an amazing playroom for her grandkids. They had the puppets, but they needed a stage big enough for multiple grandkids and good for many ages. This PVC and fabric beauty was born. But I wanted the grandkids to be able to do more with it than just put on puppet shows. I figured that if they were like my kids at all, they would like to be able to do lots of types of performances. So the front puppet stage section is removable, leaving the perfect backdrop for rising singing, dancing, magic show, whatever-the-talent stars! I really enjoyed putting this together and I already have requests to make more. My kids think we need one. Or at least need to go and visit to play with this one :) At the very least I should put together a pattern- I know there are more performers in need of a stage out there!
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I am pleased to announce that our monster magnets are now available for purchase on Etsy! Don't worry, the tutorial for how to create your own is still available and still free :)
Is your fridge looking lame? Time to monster it up! We've got some really great little monsters available, so check them out HERE or by clicking the Shop tab above. I'll be adding tons more over the next few days, so make sure you check back later too. (By "tons", I mean at least 30 more. Wahoo!) We have had so much fun selling at summer shows this year. They are always our favorites as they are full of families with lots of kids running around, a great atmosphere, and great food :). This June we have been vendors at Orem's Summerfest and Elk Ridge's City Celebration. I wanted to share a few of my favorite moments with you, because it is a great reminder to me why I do this.
We have so much fun in our booth playing with kids and adults alike and seeing them smiling and happy. Our puppets almost always bring smiles :) The times when they don't can be fairly traumatic though. The marionettes actually have a tendency to scare some of the youngest kids and we have caused quite a few screams and tears. To avoid this we try to watch the reactions of the stroller-bound set very closely ;) One mother came running excitedly into our booth with her grinning 2 year old son and asked if we could show him how a marionette worked. I happily obliged but, the moment the hairy beast took his first step, the boy backed up as fast as he could and hid behind his mother, screaming. After a startled moment we understood that he was actually screaming, "I want it, I want it!!" Though scared to death he loved that monster! It took him a good 5 minutes to get over his fear enough to touch it, but he kept trying until he managed it. We were all laughing so hard! Later that day he even brought his dad over to the booth to introduce him to his new friends, this time all smiles :) Grown men and women are not immune to the allure of puppets. Sarah introduced a new design to our menagerie this summer- some Yip-Yipping friends that were like magnets drawing adults over-because it is the older generation who recognize them and truly appreciates their simple genius. We had men who reinacted almost the entire telephone scene, full of Brrrrrrrings and uh-huh's. It was incredibly entertaining. Pictures of people with the Yip-yips as well as the Muppet style, Monsters, and Rod Armed styles were plastered all over facebook and instagram. They were as good as rock stars! I love to see the shy and quiet kids, who can hardly get up the courage to point out the marionette they would like to try, light up, smile, and relax once they start getting the marionette walking and dancing about. One particular moment stands out when a boy around 9 or 10 came up and quietly pointed out a spikey red-furred marionette he wanted to try. The edges of the booth were crowded with multiple groups of busy adults at this moment, but as soon he started walking it around, they began to oooo and ahhh and everybody turned to watch admiringly. That boy stood taller and his face just shone with pride as a grin split his face from ear to ear. The moment didn't last too long, but it made the whole day worthwhile for me. There are many more people and thus many more stories, but these were a few of my favorites that I wanted to share! I can't wait to see what the next show brings! Hope to see you there! ~Susan I just HAD to share this puppet with you. It was a custom order from a little while ago that turned out so great. He is a rather insane cereal box monster complete with moveable fingers, crazy eyes, and super sharp teeth! This was such a fun project. Totally different from my usual style, but I enjoyed the challenge. Krunchy is currently working on his debut film. I'll let you know when production is complete. I'm excited to see how it turns out!
-Sarah Here's our booth at the Big Bodacious Christmas Boutique in December:
And here's Susan hanging out with her marionettes What do you think of our booth? I have to admit, I'm completely in love with it. We have a puppet show stage built right in so when kids come by and want to play, they can jump behind the curtain and entertain the crowds. It's so much fun! I also love our marionette display. It's just a couple of 1x2's and some double sided velcro and it works great! It's easy for anyone who stops by to take the marionettes down for a walk. We've tried to make our booth interactive and fun for everyone :)
In case you're interested in the building of craft show displays, here's how we put ours together: we designed and built the stage/shelving unit and the marionette display ourselves, we made the curtains (the red curtains you see were not part of our booth) from some fabulous discounted fabric and thrift store sheets (bleached back to white), the trunks were a lucky Craigslist find, I got the puppet tree display at a furniture and fixture sale at a closing Borders store, and the free standing wall units (the silver poles holding the marionettes and curtains up) were at a furniture and fixture sale in a office supply store that was moving. If you're looking for display stuff, those closing store sales are the way to go, let me tell you! It probably saved us hundreds of dollars and tons of time trying to build things ourselves. If you want more details on how we built our stage/shelving unit, let me know! I'd be glad to share. We're looking forward to trying out a few more craft shows this year. I'll keep you posted on where we'll be and when just in case you're in the neighborhood and want to come play with some puppets. Thanks for stopping by! -Sarah Giveaway Closed We've reached our 200th etsy sale! Can you believe it? To celebrate, we've decided to do a double give away! That's right, TWO winners! One winner will receive a set of our Dino FingerJaws and the other will receive a set of our Animal FingerJaws. These fun finger puppets are a great way to beat the post-holiday, January blues. They take about 15 minutes to assemble and can provide hours of imaginative play. The winners can choose to receive either an emailed PDF version or be mailed a ready to assemble, pre-printed hardcopy. Your choice. How To Enter: All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your preference for either the Animal FingerJaws or the Dinos. That's it! Just make sure to include your e-mail so that we can contact you.
The Rules: Only one entry per person please (unless you take advantage of a bonus entry--see below). This giveaway is open to anyone with an email address. Winners outside of the US will recieve the PDF version of these puppets rather than worrying about international mail hold-ups. Bonus Entry: To receive a bonus second entry, all you have to do is share this giveaway with your facebook friends and leave a comment here telling us you did. Giveaway Dates: This giveaway will close at Midnight (Mountain Time) on January 16th. The winner will be announced and notified on January 17th. Thanks for sticking with us for 2 awesome years and 200 sales! We couldn't have made it without you. GOOD LUCK! -Sarah and Susan My sewing machine has been busy. My basement is full of fur. Because with a christmas show coming up, these marionette dragons are multiplying.... Can you believe all this fun fur! I love making these, and have about 50 done so far with a few more fur styles to go. This is the stage that my children love the most because they are so fuzzy and fun to play with- and there are no strings to get in the way yet :) The next step is to string them so they look like this: They have so much personality and always draw kids and adults alike! Here are some at the last summer show we did. By the end of the day this rack was empty. I have to tell you that it was sad, even though I was happy that they sold. I am so excited to have the next group hanging out in my house right now. They make me happy. I can't wait to play with them again at our next show! I love seeing people smiling, figuring them out, taking them for walks and teaching them to do tricks :) Don't forget to come see us at The Big Bodacious Christmas Show at the Sandy, Utah Expo Center on December 14& 15th! Some kids will be getting new pets for Christmas....
~Susan Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've been able to get anything up on the blog, so I have a bit of news to catch up on. First of all, we are officially signed up for a Christmas boutique! We had such a blast at our summer shows that we just couldn't pass up this opportunity. If you're in town on December 14th or 15th, you should stop by! We'd love to see you! Plus, we'll have some goodies in our booth that we don't sell online :) Speaking of goodies not available online (yet), I've been playing with more caterpillars! Here are a few of my favorites: I've also been playing with t-shirt designs. I looked into getting a few shirts professionally screen printed, but the non-bulk cost is just not an option for me. So, I decided to try to find a good DIY method. My sister showed me this screen printing method using Mod Podge and embroidery hoops and it totally works! I created a few different screens so I could try a couple of different t-shirt designs and here are the results: I love them! They're far from perfect, but that makes me love them even more! And now that I have the screens, I can create as many shirts in as many colors as I like :) I still haven't decided if I will make them available in my shop yet. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm not so sure I want people looking too closely at these. My sister and I will be wearing them as our "uniform" while we're running our booth at the Christmas boutique, so maybe if people show interest in them there I will put them online. In the meantime, Lastly, I just want to share a couple of custom orders I sent out over the last week or so. They turned into such fun characters! Well, I guess that's about it for now. The next few weeks of boutique prep will be pretty busy, but I'll try to keep posting and coming up with more puppety goodness to share. Oh, and just as a heads up, we'll be having a Thanksgiving sale starting next week and running through Thanksgiving, so keep an eye out for the coupon code.
Have a great week everyone! And for my fellow Americans, make sure you get out and vote today! -Sarah I have to share my latest creation with you all. I'm so excited with how she turned out! I know I say this a lot, but she is definitely one of my favorite creations :) I actually started her over a year ago when I had this brilliant idea to create a whole family of rod puppets. I only got as far as creating this guy... and the witch's head and hands. Long story short, I sold the old man puppet before I had the witch complete, so she took a back seat. Poor thing. It all worked out in the end, though. I think she turned out great! I really should make more of these puppets. They are so much fun to see come to life and really challenge my creativity. Too bad they take me so long. At this rate, we won't see another until next Halloween! By the way, if you're interested in purchasing this cute witch, she's available here.
Hope you're having a splendid day! -Sarah There has been such a great response to the Monster Hat Pattern & Tutorial! It's been so exciting to see the interest in them- from people who are going to make their kids very happy for Christmas, to a kid wanting to make some for a school fair, to amazing women who use their sewing abilities to bless children in hospitals. Wow. It makes all the time it takes to do a tutorial worth it. I hope you all continue to enjoy the new monsters you've created!
~Susan |
AuthorsSarah & Susan-Two creative puppet loving sisters just sharing what we know, what we do, and how we create. Click here for more about us. TutorialsCategories
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