Spooky Shadow Puppets

This has been Calvin's favorite Halloween-themed play so far! It was inspired by our #spookyplayeveryday photo round-up on Instagram. 

It was the same day as my online Jamberry party on Facebook and I kept forgetting about the spooky play thing. It was one of those mom-brain things where I'd remember for a sec and think, "Oh! I'm supposed to make shadow puppets because the word of the day is shadow!" And within seconds I'd get distracted by something else and I'd forget about the shadow puppets.

I finally remembered again after dinner, and by that time it was so late I aaaalmost decided to just forget it and skip that day. But I had dreamed up these shadow puppets and I knew they were going to be cool... and my inner perfectionist cringed at the idea of skipping a day. So like the stellar procrastinator that I am, I pulled it together at the last minute! Seriously, I started making the puppets at like 6:45pm and my online Jamberry party was starting at 7. James had just gotten home from work, and I, like, threw the puppets and flashlights at him and said, "Here! Shadow puppets. Go!" 

Before long, I could hear Calvin laughing so hard that I had to go see what fun those silly boys were having!

Calvin thought this cat and pumpkin game was HILARIOUS. And he has played with the shadow puppets several times since then, including trying to play with them during the day in the bedroom when it is not dark enough! Hey, I'm glad they were a hit! 

Here's how I made them:

I used cardstock and wooden BBQ skewers. The cardstock I used was some scrapbook paper from an old Mat Stack, and it was paper I was never going to use for anything else because I, um, think it's ugly. 

I have a bunch of Halloween cookie cutters, which, lets be real, are obviously for play-dough and not for actual cookies because I hate baking. And here I found yet another non-baking use for them! I used them as tracers for the shadow puppets! 

If I hadn't had these cookie cutters, I might have freehanded some shapes (easy ones like a moon, a bat, a pumpkin....), but if drawing sounds scary to you, you could always print some Halloween clip art and use it as tracers. Or, better yet, print it right on the cardstock. 

I cut out my shapes and taped them to skewers, and Voila! Shadow puppets!

Spooky, shadowy fun!



BOO!