Convert a stuffed animal into a puppet!

I LOVE puppets. I always have. But if you want to get a COOL puppet, you have to spend $30-$40. Me? Well I'm the queen of cheap. I can't spend $40 on a toy for me, cause I kind of like it. So I had an idea. How about I convert a stuffed animal into a puppet! And guess what, I just so happen to HAVE a stuffed animal up in my Mom's attic that would work PERFECTLY. Nice dangley arms that I could attach a rod to. 

So First acquire a stuffed animal with good puppet qualities. Size matters. My frogs mouth is not very deep, so it's not as easy for an adult to move the mouth. So anyway, here's my frog:

Cute huh. Get your seam ripper, and rip out the mouth seam

 Now pull out some of the stuffing. Enough to you can see the full shape of the inside of the mouth.

 Make a pattern of the mouth piece by tracing the upper and lower lip on a piece of paper

 I folded the paper in half...

 So when I was done I had a nice little pattern piece like this:

 Now take your seam ripper to the bottom seem. I forgot to take a pic of this step, but I was lucky, the frog had a seam going right up the middle. Made it easy.  Now take out enough stuffing to put your hand through.

Next step is to make the sleeve that will go up inside as well as the mouth, so measure the length you will need to go up the center, curve over your hand and attach to the mouth. I needed about 17 inches.

 I had to go an complicate things, cause sometimes I forget I can make things simple. I didn't want the fabric to get all bunched up under my hand, so I made the top long enough to cover, and the bottom shorter. But It would work just as well to make a simple tube. Also cut out the mouth piece (don't forget the seam allowance)
Curve the top of the sleeve to fit the mouth piece.

 *NOTE* This is the part where you will need to cut of the plastic for the mouth and sew it in. I didn't think about it till later and had to MaGuyver it till it worked. Cut out 2 mouth pieces, and get a plastic container like ice cream bucket, or cool whip container and cut out a top mouth piece and a bottom piece. tack it down and sew the two piece of fabric around it to enclose the plastic. (You will see what I mean with the plastic later...and if not, leave me a comment and I can help you with it)

Next pin and sew.

 I have the top pinned and the sides

 Now I have the bottom of the mouth as well

 this is the excess fabric on the top, remember mine is longer. Well I made this little pleat thing right at the top. it will end up being the back of the mouth.

 Now it is all sewn up. nothing special, just sew where you pinned.

 See, the bare sleeve. Now you stuff it through the animal.

 Center it and pin the mouth. JUST the mouth right now.

 This required some hand sewing...

 Now I realized that the mouth wont keep shape on it's own and figured out the plastic thing. I cut the shapes and shoved them up and got them in place one at a time and hand to tack them in with a needle and thread. ...that was tricky.

Now that you have the mouth  in place you might have to take out some more stuffing to get it right. Once you get it how you like it sew up the bottom the same way you did the mouth. 

 And there you have it. A home-converted PUPPET! The kids LOVE him! AND he is still fluffy enough to work as a stuffed animal.

 Frog-$0
Fabric-$3 (found a ton of black fleece at the thrift store, and the sleeve only took a scrap of that)
ENDLESS FUN!

Wood See-Saw Swing

I looked for instructions on how to build a see saw swing out of wood. Couldn't find any. BUT lucky for me my neighbor had a swing so I had a reference for measurements. 

You need:

3  8ft treated 2x2's ( had one 10 ft 2x4, and I ripped it on my table saw)

scraps of ply wood, or planks for the seats

4 5 1/2 inch bolts (I used 6 inch)

1 1/2 inch (ish) screws

3 inch screws

Cut 2x2's:

2 7ft long (swinging bars)

2 1 ft long (foot rests)

2 3 ft long (seat supports)

2 14 in long (swing supports)

Then cut the seats

They are about 10 inches front to back, and 10 inches at the widest point. I used 3/4 in ply wood, just scraps I had.

Drill your holes in the seat supports at the 12 inch mark and the 24 inch mark for the bolts. I used 3/8 in bolts. Place one of the foot rests between the seat supports before screwing the seats down. This will help you get your spacing right so the swinging bars can fit . 4 1 1/2 in screws on each seat.

Back View

Now drill your bolt holes on the swinging bars. 1 1/2 in from the top

And 12 in from the bottom

Now drill the holes in your top supports 1 inch in on each side. They should be 12 inches apart, just like the holes on the seat supports.

Turn the swinging bars on their side so the holes are on the right and left, not the top and bottom, and screw the foot rests on the bottom with 3 inch screws. 2 or 3 screws on each.

Bolt the swinging bars to the seat supports.

Screw the supports to the top of the swing set with 3 in screws. Use a scrap 2x2 to place between them while you screw it down to keep the spacing right,

Then bolt the swing to the top supports and she is ready to go!

I think I might cut some dowel rods, drill another hole on each bar about 1 ft up from the seats and slide the dowels through. One screw in the center should hold them, then the kids would have some handle bars.

Seriously, they LOVE it. (it's bigger then the ones you can buy, so it swings higher)