Being a mama who loves craftiness, it is one of my greatest pleasures to make toys for my kids. I love hearing my two-year-old daughter Kaela remark, "Mama made dat!"

Yesterday my daughters and I embarked on a felt, thread, button, and yarn extravaganza. It was finger puppet day! Monster finger puppet projects are perfect, small, manageable crafts that can be completed within the small attention span of a toddler.

Suggested Materials:

Felt scraps

Yarn scraps

Buttons

Fabric scraps

Thread

Scissors

Imagination (lots of it!)

My older daughter - who is 2- years-old - is not adept with a needle yet, so she assists me by choosing the colors of thread, felt, and yarn that I'm going to use for the project.

I asked her what she wanted on her puppet, and she said "Hair!" She chose purple yarn with red felt for the body of the puppet, and as I cut the felt she straightened out the cut yarn.

I cut two felt pieces that were 2.5 inches wide by 3 inches tall for the body of the monster. My daughter told me what shapes she wanted on her puppet (circles, triangles, rectangles, squares) and I cut them out from various scrap pieces of felt sewed it on one body piece of felt with a simple running stitch. You can also glue the shapes. We gave this monster a button for eyes, and I sewed that on securely.

After finishing the front of the monster, I sewed the two pieces of felt together along the right edge, then inserted the purple yarn hair in between the top edge of the felt pieces and sewed that securely, then sewed along the left edge. Leave the bottom edge open - that is where it will fit on your little one's finger.

And here is the first finished product!