DIY animal puppets, easy cotton pad craft for kids!

Did you ever try crafting with cotton pads? The round shape and the soft texture make cotton pads fun for crafting. We turned our cotton pads into these DIY animal puppets. They´re surprisingly easy and fun to create, so they are a perfect craft activity for smaller kids. We crafted a matching scarf for each animal puppet with some glitter washi tape. The glitter washi tape texture makes these puppets look extra festive. To make the crafting process easier for you, we created a YouTube video so you can follow along with the step-by-step craft tutorial. So, let´s gather the craft materials below and start crafting these fantastic cotton pad animal puppets!

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Cotton pad animal puppets, easy and fun craft for kids

Craft supplies DIY animal puppets

• Cotton pads
• Jumbo size popsicle sticks/craft sticks
• Felt fabric or colored paper 
• Googly eyes
• White pom-poms 
• Washi tape, we used glitter washi tape for the scarfs
• Two buttons for the owl (optional)
• Black fine liner
• Glue, we used hot glue
• Scissor
• Pink paint marker (optional)

Step-by-step instructions for easy cotton pad craft

Step 1: Gather the craft supplies you need for your cotton pad animal puppet and watch the YouTube video above.

Step 2: Start with one Jumbo-size craft stick and two cotton pads for all three animals. Put one cotton pad in the middle of your stick and one on the top of your craft stick, slightly covering your first cotton pad. If you want to craft all three puppets, you repeat this process three times. So, you end up with three craft sticks with each two cotton pads. We used hot glue to ensure it sticks well, but regular school glue is also possible. 

Cotton pad animal puppet craft, bunny layout

Cotton pad animal puppet craft, bear layout

Cotton pad animal puppet craft, owl layout

Step 3: For the bunny puppet, we´re going to start with the ears of the bunny; for each ear, you need a ½ cotton pad. You can glue the ears of the bunny upwards or have them hang downwards as we did. For the feet of the bunny, you will also need ½ of a cotton pad.

Step 4: We also cut one cotton pad in half for the owl puppet. So, each wing is ½ cotton pad. You can craft two pointy ears for the owl from cotton scrap pieces. 

Step 5: We will use ¼ of a cotton pad for the bear puppet and turn it into his paws. 

Step 6: Now, let’s give our three animal puppets each a pair of googly eyes. For the owl, you can layer two round paper circles underneath or use two buttons, as we did.  

Step 7: Next, we´re going to give our bunny a white pom-pom tail and our bear two pom-pom ears

Step 8: With some colored paper or felt fabric, we will give our owl two orange claws and a beak. Our bunny has a heart-shaped pink nose, and the bear has a brown nose.

Step 9: With a fine black liner, you can give your animal some extra touches, like a smile or feathers. And with a pink paint marker, you can also share your cotton animal puppets with a cute pink blush. This step is optional and not necessary. 

Step 10: Last but not least, we will make scarves out of washi tape. Washi tape has a perfect size and is already sticky. Any color or pattern of washi tape is cute for a scarf. If you don´t have washi tape, you can use colored paper, felt fabric, or pipe cleaners to create a scarf.   

Well, you are done creating these fantastic cotton pad animal puppets. Would you like to create more puppets? Try out these wonderful and very easy penguin spoon puppets. Or you can try this paper roll polar bear that makes an excellent DIY pencil holder.

For more information about our favorite craft supplies and stores, check out the blog post favorites.  And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for step-by-step craft instructions! 

Cotton pad animal puppets, easy and fun craft for kids

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