Shadow Puppet Theater and Getting Prepared with Duracell®

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

I come from a family of preparers. I also come from a religious community of preparers. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I am encouraged (along with all other members) to have a 72 hour kit, and if possible, 3 months supply of food, water and money. I have been taught,  if you are prepared, you should never be fearful of anything! Sometimes storms or other natural disasters happen. But being prepared can help to “ride out the storm” in a much more pleasant manner, and Duracell can help with that.

In Utah, the power will frequently go off during thunderstorms, a lot of the times in the evenings. I remember digging out flashlights and candles and we were grateful we were prepared! And in this age of electronics, not having power can be nigh debilitating. Today, I wanted to share this easy tutorial for a shadow puppet theater that can keep the kiddos entertained (it also doubles as a regular puppet theater),  as well as show you my “ride out the storm” preparedness kit.

 

But first, let me show you my #PrepWithPower “ride out the storm” kit.

 

I was able to team up with #CollectiveBias and head to Walmart to restock my preparedness bag. Firstly, I always use an old backpack. If you have one laying around, it will do just fine, no need to buy a brand new one.  Bottled water is always good, in case you don’t have running water for a few hours; easy and healthy snacks like fruit leather, nut and grain bars and trail mix; baby wipes to easily clean small dirty faces and hands; a fun, simple matching game (the Boy loves The Cat in the Hat); a small flashlight that the Boy can call his own and take care of; and of course, batteries! Make sure to stock up on lots of batteries in different sizes, you never know when you will need any given size. You can even start a fire with a 9V, so it’s extremely useful to have those on hand (and they’re good for camping as well!)

I do like this convenient “Battery Center.” Every kind you need right there.

 

Now, to make this theater, perfect for no-electricty situations,  find one of these types of boxes. I have a few kicking around. I like them, because they are so sturdy, but I don’t always know what to do with them, so I was glad to find use for one.

 

 

Using a ruler, measure and mark a nice rectangle shape. The size doesn’t really matter, it will depend on the size of your box, just make sure to leave room on the bottom and a little extra room at the top for your curtain.

 

 

Lay your box so the lid is flat on your table, and use a precision knife to cut out the rectangle that you drew.

From here, you can start your curtain. I found a fat quarter, but if you have a scrap of fabric laying around that is the right size, it will definitely work. Cut it so it covers your hole with room to spare on each side.

 

 

If you are ambitious, you can take your piece and surge or sew the edges. I just took the easy way and glued the edges to prevent fraying. Just dab a thin line of white school glue along each edge (you can skip the top), and let it dry for a few minutes.

 

 

Once your curtain is ready, run a line of hot glue across the top and press your curtain in place.

 

 

Next, cut 8 lengths of ribbon, 4”-5” inches in length.

 

 

To make ties for the curtain, glue two across the top of the curtain.

 

 

Then, glue two more below where you glued the first one, so when you roll up the curtain, you can tie to two pieces of ribbon together and hold the curtain up.

 

 

Next, to attached ties to the bottom, glue two more pieces of ribbon at the base of the theater opening.

 

 

Finish the ties by glueing two more ribbons to the bottom of the curtain facing downward so you can tie the curtain down.

 

To make the edges cleaner, I took a few strips of washi tape and added them to the edges of the “stage”.

 

For easy shadow puppets, you can draw a shape on black paper and cut them with scissors, or you can cut some shapes on your cutting machine. I cut these dinosaurs on my Silhouette after a few design tweaks. Make sure to cut two of each. If you have one-sided paper, make sure to flip your shape, so they will match up, wrong sides together.

 

 

I used those fuzzy sticks (I don’t know their technical term!) as the sticks for the puppets. They are a bit bouncy, but I like that I can bend them so they can be used at different angles, instead of just straight up from the bottom. Using white school glue, glue the two puppet pieces together, slide the fuzzy stick in between your two peces, and put the puppet under a heavy book for about 15 minutes.

 

 

The Boy LOVED it! We tried it out in his bedroom where he has black-out curtains, and used a flashlight with the puppets. I think we will be playing with this theater on a regular basis, because he had so much fun .

 

 

So, how do you get prepared? Do you have a preparedness bag, and what do you have in it?

 

If you need to restock your battery supply, be sure to use these coupons.