Make a sim­ple & happy jump­ing jack bug toy with a paper roll, thread and cereal box! I love these tra­di­tional pup­pets. You don’t need any­thing but your imag­i­na­tion to draw a cute face and bring the lit­tle fel­las to life. Pull down the string to make it fly!

What You Need

• Print­able tem­plate (down­load here)
• Cereal box
• Tis­sue paper roll
• Yarn nee­dle
• Strong thread or string
• Paint & brush (or markers)
• Scis­sors
• Glue

Step One
Draw two long “L“s on the paper roll as shown in the pic­ture above. Cut with scissors.

Step Two
Fold the “L“s you cut inside the paper roll.

Step Three
Dec­o­rate your bug! Choose a bug and use the tem­plate to trace the wings, feel­ers, and bug-pull shapes onto the cereal box and then cut them out. Draw a smi­ley face on the paper roll and then paint & dec­o­rate every­thing (includ­ing the wings).

Step Four
Next, we’ll cre­ate the joints by pierc­ing the paper roll and the wings on the dots marked with an “A.” Mark a dot and pin to make a hole on each of the paper roll folds (as pic­tured above). Pass a threaded nee­dle, with a knot on the end of the thread, through one of the holes. Take the back of a wing and pass the threaded nee­dle through the hole marked “A” on the tem­plate and tie off the tread. Do the same with the other wing as well.

Make sure the joints aren’t too tight so they are eas­ily moveable!

Step Five
Con­nect the two wings by tying a thread between the holes marked “B” on the tem­plate, above the joints. Place the knot in the mid­dle of the wings, mak­ing sure it’s pretty tight when the wings are hang­ing down. Leave one end of the thread longer to pull and test the mechanism.

Step Six
Tie the bug-pull shapes at the end of the thread and then make a loop at the top of the paper roll. To fin­ish every­thing off, glue feel­ers on the top of your new jump­ing jack’s head.

Pull down the thread to make your bug fly.

Happy craft­ing!

Meet The Contributor

Eva Mon­león (aka Mis­ako Mimoko) is a Barcelona-based doll maker who loves to hand­craft, dream, and eat. What’s not to love?

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