Journey to The West finger puppets

Finger puppets of Monkey King, Pigsy, Sandy, White Dragon Horse, and Tang Sanzang.

My brothers and I loved watching Journey to the West shows when we were kids—I think there was a hundred episodes! We loved watching  Monkey King, Pigsy, Sandy, and White Dragon Horse battling demons to protect Tang Sanzang. Now, with children of my own, I made them a collection of finger puppets to re-tell the story and for them to play with.

The puppets are made with 100% wool felt. Gold metallic threads are used to add "sparkle" to Tang Sanzang's robe. This collection is now available to purhase on my ETSY shop. 

Pattern—Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf Quiet Book Pop-Up Book

Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wold Pop-Up Book

Hurray! After more than a year, the pattern for my felt pop-up book is now available on my ETSY shop. 

This pop-up book was created for children to play and discover the joy of pop-up books — without the parental worry of rips, tears, and crushed pages. However, because there are small objects, magnets, and batteries used in this book, play should be supervised to avoid choking hazards.

Each turn of the page features a pop-up straw house, stick house, and brick house. The doors on each houses opens and shuts. Each page also have additional activities to inspire playtime imagination. Activities such as battery operated camp fire, a clothes line for drying laundry, magnetic fishing rod and fishes, and finding treasures underneath the stepping stones to name a few.

The Cover Page

The cover page features a pocket to store all the puppets, and a ribbon to tie to book close.

The Stick House Page

The stick house pages features a mud puddle, a clothes line, and objects (key, dog bone, and worm) hidden underneath stepping stones. 

The Stick House Page

The brick house page features a pond (zipper pocket), magnetic fishing rod and fishes, a water lily, a flower garden patch with a busy bee.

The Brick House Page

The brick house page features a vegetable garden (carrots, parsnips, and radishes), a basket (button onto the page, and a battery operated camp fire.

A pop-up book like this will take me about  a week to finish. For this reason, I choose to use 100% wool felt. 

If this is your first time making a pop-up book, I recommend using acrylic felt to learn the basic techniques. If you make a mistake, it's okay. Acrylic felts are an inexpensive way to build your first pop-up book prototype. 

The disadvantage of acrylic felt, is that it will "fuzz" over time. Nothing is more disheartening when you see "fuzz" covering a book you've spent countless hours working on. For this reason, if you want a heirloom quality pop-up book, I highly recommend 100% wool felt. Although it is more expensive, it is well worth the investment.

A pop-up house prototype made from acrylic felt

Chinese New Year Craft For Kids - Chinese Fire Crackers

 

Chinese New Year is about three weeks away! To get my kids excited and to learn more about their culture, I showed them how to make Chinese firecracker decorations.

It was also an opportunity to show them some Chinese firecrackers on YouTube. As we watched, I told them the loud bangs and the colour red from the firecrackers are used to scare the evil monsters away and will bring us good luck in the New Year.

To make the firecrackers, I took red paper (I reused red wrapping paper left over from Christmas gifts) and cut them to 4.5 by 3 inches. Using a thick marker, the kids rolled the paper around the marker, applied glue, stuck the edge down, and finally removed the finished tube from the marker. Then repeat. My son was quick!

Once we have enough tubes, I thread them up with a needle and two strings. I helped to poke the needle through the center of each tube while my kids help to move each tube down.

Make a loop at the end and that's it. It's done. It is now hanging on my front door scaring the "evil" away.