Paper Bag Dragon Puppet
Use the free template to make an adorable paper bag dragon puppet that’s more friendly than scary! If you love this, you’ll want to check out this paper bag bunny puppet too. This post contains affiliate links.
Puppets make a fabulous toy for pretend play and self-expression, and what better way to express oneself than with a unique craft? Kids love to show off what they create, and when we made our spoon puppets when schools were cancelled, I learned just how valuable “craft than play” ideas can be!
For that reason, I decided to share with you today a free template to make friendly paper bag dragon puppets, perfect for fairy tale puppet shows!
Paper bag puppets are a fabulous way to make your puppet crafts. They are full-bodied puppets with an animated head, making it an opportunity for kids to feel like they’re using a “real” puppet. If you prefer something simpler, you may want to stick to color and craft stick puppets, such as these Little Red Riding Hood puppets.
But if your child will appreciate a puppet with “real” moving parts, this paper bag dragon puppet is perfect! The paper bag makes it easy to craft too, as you have an existing base to paste the parts onto.
The ideal bag size for this is 13cm wide to be fully compatible with the template. You can use brown bags since you’re covering it with colored paper. However, you may prefer to paint the bags if you want more mileage out of this craft. Or, if you want a more polished touch, you may want to use green paper bags – or whichever color you want to make your dragon! If you do, you can skip the body part of the template.
On that note, since dragons are fantastical creatures, no color is a wrong color to craft them! Allow your child to choose, to be creative from start to finish for a crafting experience that’s thoroughly full of opportunity for self-expression.
Download the paper bag dragon puppet template
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What you need to make your Paper Bag Dragon Puppet
- Colored paper (great for more exact colors) or construction paper
- Paper bag
- Black marker or gel pen
- Craft glue
- Pencil
- Scissors
Instructions:
- Using the paper bag dragon puppet template, trace the shapes for all of the parts of the dragon on different shades of green cardstock, except for the blush circles which should be traced on pink cardstock. The template includes the head, stomach, 2 legs, 2 wings, 2 wing outlines, ears, tail, tail scales, blush and eyes. Then cut them out carefully. (The eyes don’t need to be traced, you can just cut them out of the template and use them as is).
2. Glue the scale cutouts along the narrower edge of the tail cutout. Glue the wing details on the wing cutouts and glue the narrow ear cutouts along the top of the ear cutouts.
3. Glue the eyes to the middle of the head cutout.
4. Glue the ears on the back of both sides of the head towards the top, and glue on the blush cutouts near the bottom part of the head on either side.
5. If necessary, trim the blush circles if they are sticking off the edge of the face. Use a gel pen or marker to draw the nose and mouth of the dragon.
6. Measure the bag size and cut out a piece of green paper to cover either side of the paper bag; this will be the body part of the dragon puppet. Glue on the stomach cutout to the middle of the body cutout.
7. Glue on the leg cutouts to the back of both sides of the body.
8. Glue the tail to the back of the body so that it sticks out on one side.
9. Time to glue the body onto the paper bag.
Center it under the flap and glue it in place.
10. Glue the wings on either side of the paper bag, between the side folds of the bag.
12. Flatten the bottom/base of the paper bag (the top of your puppet) against the body and then glue on the head to complete the paper bag dragon puppet.
You’ve successfully crafted an adorable paper bag dragon puppet! What’s your favorite puppet to craft? Comment below and then check out more printable puppets for kids to craft and play with!
