Paper Plate Dancer Puppets

I often wonder just how much more productive I’d be if I procrastinated less.
Case in point: In attempting to write the introduction for this post, I googled the lyrics to Elton John’s Tiny Dancer.
These paper plate dancer puppets have me humming that tune every time I glimpse them hanging up in my home.
Here is a good article on the origins of the song.
But wait. You’re really here to find out how to create these paper plate dancer puppets, right?
Well let me show you how. Whilst humming a few bars of Tiny Dancer is not a mandatory part of this making process, it is highly recommended.

You will need:

How to:

Paint the centre of your plates in a variety of colours.

We used acrylic paints and painted the reverse side of the plates.

Once dried, cut these painted circles out. These will form your tiny dancer’s tutu.

You’ll need to create a loop at the end of your jewellery wire to stop the tutu from sliding off.

Let the tutu-making begin!

You’re going to fold your circle into eighths and then snip off one-eighth.

Check out the video for the process.

The skirts are then threaded onto the wire and layered up. You can glue some tissue paper to the underside of the skirt if you’re after a tulle-like effect.
Tape legs to the underside of the bottom skirt as well.

The one-eighth that you cut off then forms the torso.
I simply taped the arms and head to the back of the torso before taping the torso to the wire. (Highly sophisticated, I know.)

Get creative with the hair- use wool, washi tape, markers. Whatever tickles your fancy.

Your dancer puppet is now ready to twirl and pirouette.

I love these puppets not only because they remind me of Elton John.
But because they gave me a good, solid reminder of the importance of creative play.
The lovely people at Mumtastic asked me to do up a post on paper plate crafts.
My brainstorming session involved sitting at my dining table with a stack of paper plates and just playing with them. Folding them. Getting imaginative.
I spent a very long time going “I’ve got no ideas. I’ll never come up with any ideas.”
And the dancer puppet was born.
If you like them, you’ll want to stay tuned for the Mumtastic post.

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