I like crafts..or more like looking at crafts

I've always been a bit of a female bachelor. I got married and had kids later in life, so I had practically 34 years of perfecting the art of single hood. Crafts and cooking are still the two things that I don't do or if I did do it doesn't turn out so well. So needless to say I admire people who do it both well (like my cousin, Darlene, who showcases her fabulous cooking and craft projects regularly on her blog Wooden Spoon & Crafts - my couz can cook and make anything!).  

My son, Milo, had his 5th birthday party at The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre in Balboa Park. If you live or are ever in San Diego and you want to throw a special party for your child, this place is highly recommended. We arranged for a puppet making workshop before the actual puppet show (which was a performance of "A Christmas Carol"). I had picked six pre-planned puppets for the kids to make (Tinkerbell, Dora The Explorer, Girl Scout, Dragon, Monster and a Super Hero), but needless to say the majority of our kids veered away from the template and created their own puppets (so proud of our creative progeny!).  

I tried my hand at Dora the Explorer for my daughter, Stella, and needless to say - crafting 'aint' my thang'.  

If Dora's head looks a little like a deflated balloon it's because I forgot to glue her template head on her puppet body.  We all know that Dora has a huge noggin, so it's a little disappointing my Dora looks puny.  I did decide to bling her up with those flowers on her backpack straps.  Of course, what I do best is draw, so I drew Dora's friend Boots using foam paper and gluing on some googly eyes and pink boots.  

Why I really wrote this post was for the creative awesomeness of the puppet that my husband, my brother-in-law and our friend, Rodger, created for the birthday boy. Milo requested a Darth Vader puppet and after much searching using an iPhone, it took three grown men to create this:

The woman who led the workshop was so impressed she asked us to email a photo of the puppet so she can use it's template in one of her future workshops. 

I guess in the crafting blog world I should share the list of materials:

• Black felt hand puppet base
• Black felt paper
• Glitter styrofoam paper
• Red and green plastic square jewels
• 2 Clear circle plastic jewel
• Glue and scissors
• Red pipe cleaner

After the materials, I'm afraid you are on your own (told you I'm not a crafty person). I would say copy our template above on how to cut the glitter paper for Darth's facial features and suit armor. You also want to make sure you cut the black felt paper into the shape of Darth's bell shaped helmet and glue onto the base hand puppet. Glue the red and green jewels on the body armor and the circle jewels for his eyes.  His red lightsaber is obviously the pipe cleaner. Voila!  A warm and fuzzy Darth without the disturbing heavy breathing. 

So I hope you enjoyed my rare craft post of a craft I didn't really do.  

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