1Paint the box.

Find a small flat box to make into a mini house. The box must at least be as tall as your craft sticks.

Paint the box with acrylic paint. Choose a darker shade of paint to hide the print on the box. If you want to completely cover the print, first paint the box with white acrylic paint. Once completely dry, paint with the final color. Set the box aside to dry.

2Cut out various shapes.

The box house and the stick puppet characters will be made up of basic shapes. You can either draw your own shapes or print out our templates.

a.)  Print out our templates - print out the house template and the family stick puppets template on A4 or Letter size paper. The puppets were designed to be glued onto jumbo craft sticks (6" long and ¾" wide) while the house template was intended for a small box about 6" long and 3½" wide (e.g. Pocky biscuit sticks box). Color and cut out the shapes.

b.)  Make your own shapes - with the size of your box and craft sticks in mind, cut out shapes from colored paper. Below is an example but you can always modify them to accomodate more family members. You can even include pets!

• Roof - 2 big triangles
• Doors - 2 rectangles
• Windows - 4 squares
• Heads - 3 small circles
• Dad's body - 1 small rectangle
• Mom's body - 1 small triangle
• Baby's body - 1 oval
• Hair - draw and cut out a hairstyle for each character

3Draw faces.

Draw a face on each circle. Give each character lots of personality. Add eyeglasses, a moustache, a beard, freckles and other distinct features of the family member.

4Glue the hair.

Glue the corresponding hairstyle onto each head. If you would like to have more texture, you can glue yarn, raffia, crepe paper strips, and other materials as the puppet's hair.

5Glue each body onto a craft stick.

Glue each of the character's body onto a craft stick. Position the shape near the tip of the stick. If you're using jumbo craft sticks, the top edge of the shape should be about an inch from the tip of the stick.

6Glue the heads.

Glue each head onto the tip of the craft stick. Overlap the bottom edge of the head over the top edge of the body.

7Decorate the puppets.

Draw patterns and details on the character's clothes. You can draw a necktie for dad, flower prints on mom's dress and round buttons on the baby's clothes. You can also cut out a small paper hat and glue it onto the head, cut out paper legs and arms, and many more details.

8Glue shapes onto the box house.

Check on your painted box. Once it's dry, glue the shapes onto the front and back. Both sides should have a roof (big triangle), two windows (squares), and a door (rectangle). Draw a door knob on each door. If your box has open flaps, they should be on top, between the two roof triangles.