First Cat Book Craft: Ginger Inspired But Flowers Look-alike Cat Puppet

Hello Cat Lovers and Bibliophiles,  

    Last night, I made a very cute cat puppet. I was very much inspired by a particular illustration in a book titled Ginger by Charlotte Voake. Ginger wakes up and sees the new kitten that his owner, the little girl, has brought home and he wonders, "What just happened?" That illustration is quite a common site at our house. Our two cats, Flowers and Miss Kitty like to sleep hard sometimes and then one of their brother dogs, Lenny or Buddy, start barking at a vehicle, an animal, or person that they find out of place and they wake up all of a sudden with a puzzled look on their face and beady eye or eyes. However, If I go into a room to see one of the kitty girls while they are sleeping, they usually just cover their face with one of their front paws. When they do that, it makes me thinking they are telling me, "I may hear you, I may speak to you, but I am not going to let you interrupt one of my ten daily naps if I can help it, so, as far as I know I can't see you right now." If you have a kid or a cat and have also heard the saying "Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil," then I am sure you could relate to Flowers, Miss Kitty or Ginger, the main character in the story by Charlotte Voake of the same name. Sometimes as adults or older siblings, you just want to play "It" in Hide and Seek and have everyone hide and then you can decide when you will seek the others out when you are ready to socialize. I don't recommend doing this game with your own friends or relatives, but with my cat puppet, you can hide your pretend cat's eyes behind its own movable paw and play a similar game of Hide and Not Seek, which would be so much more fun for all involved.

Here is the supplies you will need:

• A photo of your cat or someone else's cat sleeping with one foot visibly hanging to the side of  the cat's head
• A scanner or copier on which you can increase the size of your cat picture to a workable size (I made my cat picture fit into an 8.5 x 11" piece of paper) and copy paper
• Two sheets of white printer copy paper or tracing paper for each cat puppet you plan to make
• A sheet of colored construction paper or cardstock the color of your cat (I used an 8.5 x 11" sheet of  black paper because Flowers is a tuxedo cat. If you have a two-toned cat, try to pick the base coat's color.)
• A sheet of white card stock
• A light table or a window with bright enough light for tracing your cat's silhouette 
• A pencil or pen in dark ink
•  A box of crayons or whichever crayon colors you need to make your cat puppet's coat color purrfect
• A pair of scissors
• A brass brad, average size (Unless you want to make a tiny puppet, then I suggest you use a smaller scrapbook brad)
• A hole punch or craft screw punch (I prefer to use one that makes a small circle hole. A regular hole punch will work, but I prefer the Martha Stewart screw punch because it makes a consistent hole and it is easier to use. Available online and at most major arts and crafts supply stores) 
• Optional: A cutting mat or heavier piece of stiff cardboard for using with the screw punch.

First Step: You need to print out from your computer or make a copy of a cat photograph on a scanner or copier. You want to make sure the cat in the picture you choose will be easy to trace once it is printed out. If using a copy machine, you might need to make more than a couple copies until you get to the desired size. Try increasing size on copier to 100% or 200%. I chose to make mine fit into an 8.5 x 11" space so that it would be an accessible size for a preschooler to manage with a little adult or older child's help. You can make a black and white copy or color copier. Below is the the photo I chose to use

Second Step: Trace your printed cat picture of desired size using tracing paper and a pencil or dark pen. If you are new to tracing: Place the tracing paper on top of your picture and slowly sketch around the outside of your cat picture. You don't need to add much detail to the silhouette except for where the front legs are and where the head is in relation to the front leg you want to move. Note: I was in the planning stages when I traced my cat, so mine has more detail than you actually need in your sketch.

Third Step: Trace your cat outline onto a piece of white cardstock, so you have a thicker pattern piece to work with and then trace the foot you want to be movable on an empty space on your white cardstock. When tracing the foot draw a little farther past so you have enough "leg" to work with. 

 

Fourth Step: Carefully cut out your cat silhouette outline and foot outline with scissors. You can either cut out the silhouette pattern pieces at the same time you cut out your colored construction paper pieces by layering the colored piece underneath or you can cut out the pattern pieces first and then use them to cut around. Whichever way works best for you is fine. Since I did not need two of the same foot, I cut it off of my colored cat silhouette.

Fifth Step: Color your cat silhouette and cat leg with crayons. Add details to make your cat puppet come alive like the cat in your inspiration photo.

Sixth Step: Place leg on top of where you want it to go on your cat and then punch a whole a fourth of an inch from the top of your leg piece.

Because my cat is black and white, I decided to give you an extra photo of the placement of the foot on my cat puppet.

        

 Step Seven: Insert brad in the hole and secure in place. Note: if you don't want to see the brad color, you can add some glue stick glue to a small piece of tissue paper the color of your cat's fur coat and attach to the brad before securing or have an adult color it with a paint pen of corresponding color.

Step Eight: Enjoy your new cat puppet!  I think mine turned out pretty well when you compare the two: the puppet on the left to the photo of Flowers on the right.

Today, I spent some time with Flowers and I took a few pictures of her and her smaller puppet double. I hope you enjoy them! I may post some more photos on The Witty Kitties Facebook page. If you want to see more cat posts other than the cat book reviews on this blog, please consider following me and the kitties, Flowers and Miss Kitty, there. It's never a dull day with those two.

P.S. The bottom photo blurred because Flowers is a busy quick moving girly cat. I will probably

 try to take another one like that.  Notice the puppet is covering its eye with its movable paw. :)

Lover of Silly Cats,

Alesia