Paper Bag Puppets Inspired by Fandango!!!

Have you ever heard of the Fandango Puppets? (I'm sure most of you have....) They are these great paper bag puppets from the Movie company Fandango that are designed with unusual items such as candy, pasta, straws, licorice, fruit pieces, and more....!!! Check out there website here to watch some of their videos.  I remember first seeing these puppets on movie posters at the theater and later in the commercials and I always felt compelled to make puppets in this style.  Cassie and I tried our hand at making these puppets and here is how they turned out.  What do you think??? Keep reading to find out how you can make A FANDANGO Bag Puppet Online!

Here are some actual Fandango Puppets.  Aren't they great?  The idea for these puppets came from creative director Len Fink whose many credits include the Coca Cola Polar Bears.  The puppets are made by artist James Hayes who has designed for the Jim Henson Company (The Muppets!) No wonder I like them so much!!!

To create these puppets we gathered lots of cool items such as pasta, candy, shredded paper, beans, fabric, bottle caps, yarn and paper bags, of course!  For the lips we used construction paper.....which seems to be a definitive feature on all the Fandango Puppets.  We used glue and scissors to add all the items.

C having fun with the variety of materials!

This is C's puppet.  She used orange noodles for her hair and cheerio eyes!  Can you see the resemblance? Do not do this project when hungry because she wanted to eat all the treats!

This is my puppet.  I had a lot of FUN!

Now you can try making a FANDANGO PUPPET!!! Online or like we just showed you!

The last puppet (the black haired one pictured in the first pic) we did together.  It is kinda scary, but cool!  ***If you want to try your hand at designing a Fandango Puppet without gathering materials or making a mess try the online game: FANDANGO Bag Puppet Creator!!! You'll have a blast!  C had a lot of fun with it and made countless creations!!!  Let me know what you think!

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Pretend Potions!

This idea came over from Frugal Family Fun Blog!  Check out their post here. When I saw this idea I knew Cassie would love it!  All you need are some recycled plastic bottles, water, food coloring, dish soap, and whatever else you choose (we even added baking soda and vinegar!) You could add funnels too....we did it so spontaneous we forgot!  Now your ready for some Pretend Potions!

Adding some drops of food coloring to the water!

Adding some baking soda to the vinegar to make it bubble!

Watching the experimentation!

Mixing colors...and adding dish soap for bubbles...

We had Fun! Thanks to: Frugal Family Fun Blog!

Dandelion Cupcakes!

The other day we were collecting dandelions, purple flowers, grass, and other wild flowers in our yard and I immediately thought of this fun activity from The Imagination Tree! Their post is titled Goop and Flower Cupcakes and be sure to take a look at our inspiration! Cassie had such a blast with this activity. Lots of pretend play and creating your own recipe instead of following one! Here are our Dandelion Cupcakes that we created:

First we gathered all the flowers and grasses in our toy wheel barrow! Cassie Loves collecting natural objects and this activity in itself is valuable! One could create a nature collage with these materials too! These natural items that children collect are such precious treasures!

This activity was so spontaneous that I ran into our house for muffin tins, liners, water, flour , corn starch, bowls, spoons, and measuring cups! Good thing we had most the ingredients and materials, but I'm sure you could use what ever you want! Cassie had no clue what was going on, but she was excited!!! I told her that we were making cupcakes and that she could use all the ingredients that I brought out to create a recipe that she wanted!!! She had so much fun and it was great to hear the conversation she was having with herself about making her cupcakes!

Here is the beautiful mixture:

Cassie especially loved the cornstarch! Cornstarch in itself is a great sensory experience! We put some on our hands and it was so fun to feel it and run  our fingers through it! Cassie even put some cornstarch on our deck and smoothed it around and drew in it with her fingers! You can see that it got all over her face in the next picture! She could of kept making the mixture if I would have let her!

After we mixed up the recipe, it was time to put the ingredients in the cupcake liners! Fun! What a Great creation! Cassie made two trays of her Dandelion Muffins! It made a huge mess, but it was easily sprayed away with the hose! She was so proud of her creation and wanted to show her Dad and anyone else that came by that day!

Thanks again to: THE IMAGINATION TREE for inspiration! Please be sure to check out their post here!

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE PRETEND PLAY ACTIVITIES???

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