Hello to all my monster-loving friends out there! Between commissions and gifts, it’s been a busy few weeks in the Monster Workshop here. I thought you might like to see what’s been coming to life… enter fuzzy blue hand puppets and fun fleecy sleep masks! All handmade by yours truly, these puppets and masks have your play-time and rest-time covered. The fleece and felt monster hand puppets come in different styles and colours and have plastic enforced mouths for easy operation. They’re great for make-believe, role playing, story-time, sing-alongs, teaching, and fun. I’m also happy to bring back these much beloved monster sleep masks, with a new and improved design to keep light OUT and comfort IN. There will even be matching hand puppet and sleep mask sets- yes, “Oh My!”
As promised, here is the pattern and instructions for last week’s fun craft, the Gotcha Monster!
Supplies:
Felt sheets
Pipe-Cleaners
Craft Stuffing/Cotton/Fabric Scraps
Scissors
Marker
Glue (hot glue gun & glue or white craft glue)*
Optional Supplies for Personalizing Your Monster:
Craft Foam Sheets
Googly Eyes (instead of cutting out your own felt eyes)
Craft Fur
Beads
Ribbons
Feathers
Whatever you want to decorate your Gotcha!
*Note: I used hot glue, which dries quickly as you press your pieces together but hot glue guns should only be used by an adult using caution as they can cause burns! If using white glue, be patient as it dries.
Step 1: Print provided pattern or design your own monster shapes on paper. You can get as creative as you like with shapes and details! What will your Gotcha look like!?
Step 2: Cut out paper pattern pieces and trace them in specified amounts onto felt sheets using a marker. Choose your own colours! You can use craft foam for the horns if you have it, but felt is fine!
Step 2: Cut Out & Trace Your Pattern
Step 3: Cut out all the shapes now drawn on the felt and/or craft foam.
Step 3: Cut Out Your Pieces
Step4: Use a pipe cleaner to form each of the monster’s arms and legs: fold in half, fold ends over to create a long “M” shape, twist pipe cleaner at fingers/toes and down the arm/leg to create a sturdy limb.
Step 4: Bend Pipe-Cleaners Into Arms & Legs
Step 5: Glue the Belly, Eyes, Pupils, Mouth, then Tongue (glue along the flat, cut edge of the felt to make the tongue stick out!) to the outside of the Front Body.
Steps 5 & 6: Glueing On the Pieces
Step 6: Glue the Horns, Fur or other optional accessories if any (get creative!), Arms and Legs to the inside of the Back Body— all just a few centimetres in from the edge so that they stick out!
Step 7: Attach the Back and Front Body together by applying glue to the edge of the inside of either Body, a section at a time, leaving a small hole to push the stuffing into. (*If using white glue, let the glue dry at this stage before attempting to stuff the monster.) After filling the body with stuffing/cotton balls/fabric scraps, glue the remaining hole shut and ta-daa! You’ve got yourself a Gotcha!
Step 7: Attach the Front & Back
Step 8: Give your Gotcha a name and have fun! See what your Gotcha can hang onto or what games it might come up with!
Step 8: A Gotcha is Born- Have Fun!
Happy crafting everyone…I’d love to see a picture of your Gotcha in the comments!
I’ve got a serious case of the crafties lately— for me crafting is an unleashing of creative energy as well as a peaceful and therapeutic activity. So my logic deduces that crafting is overall good for the heart! Since I’ve been wanting to create some monster crafts for all of you young-at-heart monster huggers out there, it proved to be the perfect day for creating this crafty little cutie. He’s fun and easy to make and can hang out with you wherever you go to serve as a reminder that joy, love, and creativity can be found in any moment. Stay tuned for the upcoming free monster craft pattern and instructions to make your very own Gotcha! In the meantime, don’t forget to create in whatever fun, calming, imaginative, stress-relieving ways call to you… Especially if you’ve found yourself stuck in a mindset of needing to be achieving, succeeding, or otherwise accomplishing materially purposeful activities lately 😉 Set your heart free…let the crafties getcha 😉
I’ve had some interest in colouring pages this past week, and as such, I decided to create a free printable one for you and/or the little ones in your life! After an unexpected friend landed in my nature photoshoot on Friday— resulting in a photo that received more attention than the rest of the shoot’s photos— I knew I had my inspiration. So in the name of summer coming up and new friends to be found all around, I hope you enjoy this free “Colour-Me” page:
DIRECTIONS: Click on the image > Click the “View Full Size Image” button at the bottom right> Select File > Print > Choose landscape > Print. Let me know if you have any issues as it’s my first time sharing a printable on my blog 🙂
If you want to see more of my available work, including a downloadable 10-page colouring book entitled “What’s in a Seed?”, visit my online SHOP here!
Colour-Me Printable Page
(P.S. Below is the popular photo from my photoshoot for your now-peaked interest!)
I often find myself missing my childhood play time— the magic of disappearing into fictitious stories and make-believe worlds; the joy of embodying a character with uninhibited freedom of expression; the escape from the world’s problems into mystery, laughter, romance… the imagination is the limit. That is to say it is unlimited of course.
Play is an incredibly powerful activity and, not just unfortunately— but tragically — is often left in the wake of adulthood. Play allows us to discover more about the world and about ourselves while expressing in ways otherwise inhibited. It is crucial, at any age, in my opinion (and in the opinion of many experts who study play).
Play can take many forms, from art and creative projects, to songwriting, to improv, to sports, to frolicking at the beach or amongst the trees, to laughing and goofing around with friends to — (insert your favourite fun activities here!). If it is coming from a pure, authentic, free place, and eliciting joy, I think it is safe to call it “play” though others may have a different definition.
As many of you know, one of my favourite sources of play is creating monsters— both on paper and off, the “off” part including HAND PUPPETS! Puppets are such fun and create an often immediate bridge of connection with children in different activities and environments as well as reacquainting us “older kids” with our childhood selves. What better than having a ridiculous character attached to your arm to elicit sporadic voices, movements, storytelling, and whatever else may come. I love puppets, and I’ve recently been called to create more of them.
You can make your own simple puppets by using an (old?) sock and some googly-eyes and get creative with other crafting supplies like felt, pipe-cleaners, fabric scraps, buttons, sequins, paper, popsicle sticks… oh how the memories of my childhood are dancing fresh on my mind right now! Perhaps I’ll post some tutorials on puppet-making here in the coming days… anyone interested?
Below are 3 different Monster Puppet designs I’ve created, please help me out by voting for the one you’d most like to see come to life! Option 1, 2 or 3!?
Play. Create. Discover... 
