If you’ve got a little space fan then they will love this Astronaut Puppet Craft! These spacemen are so fun to make and play with! You pull the moon at the bottom and the spaceman craft will shoot it’s arms and legs up and out to the sides. It is the cutest space craft ever!
There are 3 free printable versions for you to choose from. A black and white astronaut puppet you can colour yourself, a pink astronaut and a red and green astronaut too.
This astronaut puppet craft is fun to make for yourself but they’re also great as Valentine cards or Father’s Day cards. We’ve created two space themed messages panels you can glue on and one that you can personalise yourself too. The ready to print messages say “Love You To The Moon And Back” and “You’re Out Of This World”. I bet you can think of lots of ideas to add yourself too.
There are two choices of moon to use on your spaceman puppet too. A plain moon or one with a “To” and “From” message on so you can use them as Astronaut Valentine Cards or Spaceman Father’s Day Cards etc.
I used to make paper dolls with my mum using this method when I was a little girl. It was a lovely activity that I’d forgotten all about until recently when I saw Red Ted Art’s lovely Paper Elf Puppets at Christmas and the memories came flooding back! The good thing about crafts like these paper puppets is that once kids learn the method they can have fun making all sorts of wonderful designs of their own!
Astronaut Puppet Craft Tutorial
Spaceman Craft Supplies:
- Free Printable Template – available in black & white and two colour choices. (Get yours at the bottom of this post.)
- White Printer Card
- Single Hole Puncher
- Paper Fasteners
- Large Darning Needle
- Embroidery Floss
- Glue
- Scissors
- Sticky Tape
How To Make An Astronaut Puppet Craft
1 – Download and print your chosen Astronaut Puppet craft. (Available at the bottom of this tutorial.) There are three options to choose from. A ready coloured pink and red/green spaceman. Also a black and white spaceman craft you can colour in yourself. All three versions have two moons to choose from and three message panels.
2 – Cut out your astronauts body pieces.
3 – Use the single hole puncher to cut out the small holes at the top of the arms and legs and the four on the body.
4 – Position an arm behind the body and pop a paper fastener through the body’s shoulder hole and through the arm hole. Open the paper fastener on the reverse to hold the two pieces of paper puppet together.
5 – Repeat for all four limbs.
6 – Thread the large needle with embroidery thread or similar and turn your astronaut puppet over. With the arms in the down position pierce through the tops of the arms to sew them together and knot the thread in place at each end.
7 – Repeat with the two legs, again in the down position.
8 – Keeping the limbs pointing down tie a longer thread onto the middle of the arm thread.
9 – Then tie the longer thread onto the middle of the leg thread.
10 – Leave a long thread hanging down and when you pull it you will see that it pulls the horizontal threads down sensing the spaceman’s arms and legs up and out to the side!
11 – Chose your moon and cut it out. Remember there is a plain one or one with text.
12 – Sticky tape the moon onto the long thread so you can pull the moon down to make the astronaut puppet move.
13 – If you want to make your astronaut puppet into a Valentine card or Father’s Day card choose a printed message or write your own and stick it onto the spaceman’s tummy.
You can print the astronaut craft instructions below.
More Fun Valentine Crafts For Kids:
Astronaut Puppet Craft
Materials
- Free Printable Template – available in black & white and two colour choices.
- Printer Card
- Single Hole Puncher
- Paper Fasteners
- Large Needle
- Embroidery Thread
- Glue
- Scissors
- Sticky Tape
Instructions
- Download and print your chosen Astronaut Puppet craft. There are three options to choose from. A ready coloured pink and red/green spaceman. Also a black and white spaceman craft you can colour in yourself. All three versions have two moons to choose from and three message panels.
- Cut out your astronauts body pieces.
- Use the single hole puncher to cut out the small holes at the top of the arms and legs and the four on the body.
- Position an arm behind the body and pop a paper fastener through the body’s shoulder hole and through the arm hole. Open the paper fastener on the reverse to hold the two pieces of paper puppet together.
- Repeat for all four limbs.
- Thread the large needle with embroidery thread or similar and turn your astronaut puppet over. With the arms in the down position pierce through the tops of the arms to sew them together and knot the thread in place at each end.
- Repeat with the two legs, again in the down position.
- Keeping the limbs pointing down tie a longer thread onto the middle of the arm thread.
- Then tie the longer thread onto the middle of the leg thread.
- Leave a long thread hanging down and when you pull it you will see that it pulls the horizontal threads down sensing the spaceman’s arms and legs up and out to the side!
- Chose your moon and cut it out. Remember there is a plain one or one with text.
- Sticky tape the moon onto the long thread so you can pull the moon down to make the astronaut puppet move.
- If you want to make your astronaut puppet into a Valentine card or Father’s Day card choose a printed message or write your own and stick it onto the spaceman’s tummy.