Friday, May 20, 2011

puppet play: diana schoenbrun guest post!

If you're anything like me, you have any number of stray socks and mittens lying around the house that have sadly lost their mates. In the new book Puppet Play20 Puppet Projects Made with Recycled Mittens, Towels, Socks, and More, author Diana Schoenbrun shows her readers how to make super cute and easy puppets from these and other recycled materials.

Since many crafters are interested in the creative process behind a craft book like this, Diana is here at the honeybee blog today to tell us how she came up with the inspiration for her book.

PS--if you'd like to try out a couple of sample projects from Puppet Play, including the quirky striped elephant puppet on the book cover, please visit the links below!

Crazy Cat Puppet
Betty the Elephant Puppet

From Diana Schoenbrun:

I came up with the idea for Puppet Play a few years ago.

I had taught a puppet and playwriting classes for children ages five to seven. They wrote a short play with characters and created puppets from materials found around the house. I enjoyed making puppets with the children and wanted to take this idea further. Why not use gloves, mittens, scarves, towels and other materials to build toy puppets for playtime? I wanted the materials to be easily accessible and found at home. I tried to incorporate found objects and repurpose other materials. Of course, it helps if you are a pack rat and save things for a rainy day.

Here’s some fun background information about the book. I used a green bandana from hiking trips for the frog puppet. Some cans from my leftover meals were used for a Robot puppet. The Roslyn Raccoon puppet is based on my sister. The original book title was “Take Those Stinky Socks Off!”

Check out the past blog tour stops below. Learn about how I store my supplies at Whip Up, check out how I came up with ideas at SewMamaSew, and how my mom influenced me at Oh My Handmade. Leave a message on my blog and Puppet Play Facebook page and I will choose one winner on May 27th to receive a free book.

Diana Schoenbrun is the author of Beasties: How to Make 22 Mischievous Monsters That Go Bump in the Night and Puppet Play: 20 Puppet Projects Made with Recycled Mittens, Towels, Socks, and More. Visit her online on her websiteblog, and Facebook page.

Other stops on Diana's blog tour:

Craft Test Dummies
Cute Everything
Schmancy
Progressive Pioneer
Pink and Green Mama
Craft Gossip

Photographs courtesy of Diana Schoenbrun and Andrews McMeel Publishing.

19 comments:

  1. I have a niece and nephew that I think would love this! I may steal Ms. Schoenbrun's puppet play idea for them as well :)

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  2. Alas, I have far more than a FEW stray socks lying around. I think my children eat them. I have an entire small basket of unmatched socks with no plans and only desperate hopes that I will find some of their mates. Now I can have some ideas about what to do with them! Great book idea!

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  3. What a really fun idea! This is the kind of thing I always think I am going to do and then I never do it. I will definitely have to pick up this book for ideas! It also looks like it would be a great kid's birthday party gift or even a baby shower gift if you had an especially crafty friend.

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  4. Oh, I love this! I will definitely check out this book-what great ideas. I can certainly see making these for my little girl not to mention all of our nieces and nephews.

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  5. Ugh, I wish I had a cool knee sock around to make a cat puppet! It looks like soooooo much fun.

    I think the original title is quite fun, and I could see walking in to the local bookstore asking for it! lol

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  6. These are too cute! My daughter loves making sock animals... but she hasn't tried puppets yet... I will show her this page!

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  7. I love this! So much more creative than the basic sock monkeys and the mice are especially cute as I love the idea of creating puppets from gloves and spare mittens hehe. I have wanted to make some kind of puppets for a long time and after seeing this I have some more ideas and may have to take a better look at this fab book, thanks =D

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  8. Very cool and creative. And the designs are not too precious. As a mother of two kids that often mismatch their socks on purpose--and then lose the mates to these socks!--this book will come in handy.

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    Congratulations!! ;)

    A kiss from "The Music Box"...♥

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