I’ve always loved to get artistic inspiration from the films we watch and the music that we listen to as a family. Growing up, my siblings and I loved playing with what we called our “Treasure Trolls.” This is what we called these dolls we had that were a type of plastic doll with furry up-combed hair depicting a troll, also known as a Dam doll after their creator Danish woodcutter Thomas Dam. Some people also referred to them as good luck trolls, or alternatively gonk trolls in the United Kingdom.
They became a a toy craze in North America during the early 60’s and again during the 90’s when I was a teenager. Thomas Dam actually carved his first troll doll as a gift for his daughter. Later, he began selling the dolls locally after his daughter’s friends started asking for them. I’m sure he never imagined that his troll dolls would become such symbols of pop culture. Now that the Trolls movie has come out, I am more excited than ever to share this part of my childhood with my sons and to introduce them to one of my favorite memories.
The new Trolls film inspired me to create the following craft in order to celebrate the movie’s debut. Troll Puppets are very easy to make and they are a great way to get your whole family about the Trolls movie!
Troll Puppet
Materials:
1/4 Yard faux colored fur (Joann fabrics carries many different colors)
Paper lunch sack
Colored googly eyes
Pink, lime green, and blue craft foam sheets
Scissors
Directions-
1. Cut a triangle shape from your faux fur, making the bottom the width of the bottom on the bag
2. Turn your bag upside down with the fold facing forward and carefully hot glue your fur to the top of the bag (which is really the bottom)
3. Then glue your googly eyes right below the fur hairline
4. Cut out two small half ovals for ears, a wide nose, and a smile from your pink craft foam sheet and glue them onto your bag
5. Then cut a 1/2″ wide green headband the width of the fur hair and little blue flowers
6. Glue your flowers onto the headband and glue your headband onto the hair
7. Place your hand in the bag and use as a puppet
Let’s Discuss: What do you remember about the Trolls dolls from your childhood?
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My daughter’s name is Poppy, so she was so so excited when this movie came out. Got to make this with her. She’ll be thrilled.
I never knew the history behind these dolls. That’s very interesting! I do however remember many many trolls in my early childhood in the nineties. I probably had two or three larger dolls and quite a few smaller ones. To this day, I still think they are the cutest dolls around.
This is adorable! I’m going to save this for the next time I have our Granddaughters over. They are crazy for anything pink!
I accidentally posted on your FB page, but I love this craft. The faux fur is such a creative idea for the hair!
What a cute and fun craft. I love that trolls are a thing again. I loved them as a kid.
I totally didn’t know the history of the trolls but that’s really awesome. I haven’t seen the movie and I’ve never had one. But my nieces love them!
My students are obsessed with trolls! They would adore doing this project as a fun artistic activity sometime!
This looks like a fun craft! I loved puppets when I was a kid and making your own is always fun 🙂
My son would love doing this craft with me! I remember having the dolls when I was younger and I remember just how popular they were then.
I remember them–probably from the 60’s at sometime. I know I never owned one but wanted to. A lot of my friends had them. I never knew the history behind them–very interesting!
I love Trolls so much. This craft is such a cute idea. Would be perfect for a party craft!
My daughter loves the movie so I know she’ll love this! Thanks for sharing this cute craft!
This is darling, we still haven’t seen this movie yet – sounds like we need to make a trip to the theater.
Oh gosh. YES the trolls. I remember them fondly. I do love me a good paper bag craft!
What a cute idea! We haven’t seen the movie yet. Since the movies are so expensive, our family of four only goes once every couple of months. This was one of the movies that my youngest daughter wanted to see, but noone else.
I can’t believe trolls have come back around! They are soooo much fun! What a great little craft.
What a cute idea! My mom always does crafts with two little girls she babysits on Fridays. They would love something like this. I will pass this on to her!
When completed, these crafts look so much simple to make, however, there is deep detailing involved in making such a great craft. These directions sound easy to follow, but I know you need precision in order to make such a perfect doll.
This is an adorable idea. My daughters would love to do this craft with me.
I love this craft, I think my kids would love doing this with me! I remember having SO many troll doll whens I was kid. I loved them. I didn’t know about the history of the troll doll, so cool!
This is super cute! My girls would be completely amused with it, for sure!
Oh my gosh this is SO cute. My daughter and i LOVED seeing this movie and this would be such a fun craft to do this weekend. Pinning!
Omg how cute is this trolls puppet?!?! My daughter would probably love to make one of these!!!
This is too cute! I am going to show this to my daughter so we can make it together!
THIS IS SO CUTE! I don’t have kids but I will be doing this cute craft with my sweet nieces over the christmas holiday! They will LOVE it.
Oh! These are so adorable! I’ve been wanting to see Trolls and I think our son would love it too!
This is so cute. I could totally have seen myself doing something like this with kids when I worked in a day care years ago.
This isn’t such a cute idea! Thinking of trying to make one with my little sister.
SO cute! My son would totally get a kick out of these! They seem pretty quick to make too!
This is beyond creative! Now this makes me want to see the film!