I love craft projects that can be carried off and used for playtime, and puppets are the perfect craft for sparking some creative pretend play. We had great fun making these super-simple and adorable puppets using envelopes and other supplies we found around the house.

Start by sealing your envelope and cutting it in half. You can then make two hand puppets from each envelope. We used a mix of white and colored envelopes for our puppets – it seems like we always have a few random, mismatched envelopes laying around.

Now it’s time to use your imagination and creativity to create your puppets! You could make a favorite animal, a silly monster, or a funny person. How about puppets of your family or characters from a favorite story?

Here are a few ideas for fun puppet-making materials:

• patterned scrapbook paper
• colored construction paper
• tissue paper
• colored or patterned tape
• feathers
• googly eyes or eye stickers (we have a roll of these)
• bubble wrap
• faces cut from magazine or catalog pages
• markers, crayons, or other things to draw with

As you can see, my girls had fun cutting face parts from catalogs. They also made pop-out noses with large bubble wrap and curled paper for frog tongues and pig tails – so creative!

Envelope puppets are simple, open-ended, and perfect for all ages. We had fun making a big collection of puppets, and I’m sure a puppet show will be following soon! Happy crafting!