Cardboard Puppet Stage

Intro: Cardboard Puppet Stage

Here's how you can make a puppet stage in a day.
Its lightweight, strong and portable and looks great for a hand puppet performance.
Includes new tips you can use to make hinge cupboards out of leather and balsa wood / thick cardboard.

Here's how to make the puppets displayed in this instructable: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Design-Hand-Puppets/

Check out more a sample from Eric Guiomar's book step by step

New! Eric Guiomar's new pdf book part 2 is available.  Also excerpts of first book How to Make a Ming Table free download here:
Chapter contents
Part A & B French Instructiions for Ming Table
Scroll down to

Extraits du livre

• Table des matières - Fichier PDF (404.5 Ko)
• Tabouret Ming (pages 12 à 15) - Fichier PDF (1.3 Mo)
• Tabouret Ming (pages 22, 23) - Fichier PDF (1.1 Mo)

Check out many French Cartonnistes Websites below:
French Cartonnistes Websites

Check out ways you can use puppetry for educational purposes:

http://www.nostrings.org.uk/
http://www.youtube.com/user/nostringspuppets

STEP 1: Measure and Cut

1. Draw the front side by tracing a rectangle onto 2 or 3 ply cardboard.

2. Check the direction of the cardboard, it should be vertical for stronger structure. (If cut on the vertical, it will bend easily)

3. Glue struts to front and back frame. I tried cold glue, but hot glue seems to work best.

STEP 2: Put Up Walls

Trace and measure inner walls and outer walls.

Cut with sharp craft knife, slicing 4-5 times lightly through card, (no energy is necessary).

The gum edges in place with gummed tape.

STEP 3: Make Leather Hinge

1. Cut a small piece of balsa wood or thick card that comes from the back of art sketch books. This will support the fabric hinge. File wood roughly so that the fabric will stick better.

2. Cut and glue a piece of leather to hinge.

Check out my Make Your Own Door Hinges slideshow here for more hinge designs.

STEP 4: Cover the Stage

1. Measure a piece of cloth which is larger than stage.

2. Trim to fit. Use pins if necessary to keep in place while cutting.

3. Use a paper stapler to staple the fabric at the back to hide the staples.

Comments

[woelfwynde02]

Your link no longer works....

[Sunny124613]

ur welcome,all I want to do is help

[Sunny124613]

well,you can buy glow i the dark fabric,but we use a black light spray or paint that you can get if you look it up,you don't need to use fluro fabrics(and I suggest you don't because of wear and tear around the mouth,we use this type of foam,but I don't know what it is called),the light is called black light and even though it is blue,it makes anything with black light spray or paint glow!and this is not me but it is something like this.(to find a puppet store near you just use Google)

• tip:if you stay with the puppet store for a long time,you sometimes can get discounts,only if it is not a mean old lady,try to get the younger foolish ones to give you puppets at a discount price and usually if you bribe them with like,5 bucks more with the discount price they will let you buy it.

I hope this paragraph helps!!!

[Sunny124613]

I dont write my story scripts but I do a class and all of the puppets sing the songs like Under The Sea and we do black light (you know like glow in the dark!)and it is really cool in the end

[Sunny124613]

oh no,I am only talented with the working of puppets not the making of puppets

[Sunny124613]

i like the color of the stage and i also love your puppets!!!

[caitlinsdad]

Nice. I see you could have fancied it up by cutting the top out with scrollwork or cut it in a shape of a castle for fairy-tale theater. I like to work with cardboard too but I prefer the non-toxic glues. The woodworking glues have a better tack and still relatively cheap when you use so much to laminate the cardboard. I also peel the paper from scraps to use as my "gummed tape". Recycle as much as I can. Please put up an instructable on those puppets if you made them!