DIY Rabbit In The Hat Pop-Up Puppet

I love watch­ing magic shows. It’s amaz­ing to see a magi­cian pull a coin out of someone’s ear, guess the cor­rect card, or saw a per­son in half. To bring some of that won­der­ful magic to my three-year-old son, I made him this pop-up magician’s rab­bit. With one sim­ple push, a cute rab­bit pops out of a magician’s hat!

Curi­ous to see the magic behind this craft? Let’s get started!

What You Need

• Cereal Box Cardboard
• Pen
• Toi­let Paper Roll
• Wood Paint Stirrer
• Scis­sors
• Fab­ric Scissors
• Black and White Duct Tape
• Felt (Assorted Colors)
• Hot Glue Gun
• Paint
• Paint Brushes
• Craft Knife
• Cut­ting Mat

How-To

Step 1
Cover your work area. Paint your wood paint stir­rer. (I didn’t dec­o­rate the top por­tion because it wound up being cov­ered by the rabbit’s head.)

Step 2
Cut out a felt bunny. (I made mine about 9 1/2” from the tops of the ear to the bot­tom. But then trimmed about an inch from the bot­tom in step 8 for aes­thetic rea­sons.) Glue on felt for the rabbit’s face, ears, bowtie, and paws. Don’t glue any­thing onto the rabbit’s stom­ach. The felt needs to be soft enough to fold eas­ily into the magician’s hat.

Step 3
Draw a cereal box cir­cle that’s larger than your toi­let paper roll open­ing. This will be the brim for the magician’s hat. Cut the cir­cle out. Begin cut­ting out some duct tape pieces to cover the toi­let paper roll and cir­cle. (To cut duct tape, pull and stick your duct tape onto your cut­ting mat. Then, use your craft knife to slice through the duct tape. This will give you nice, neat cuts every time.)

Step 4
Cover the toi­let paper roll with duct tape strips (about 6 ½” long). Then, cut out strips to cover both sides of your hat brim.

Step 5
Use your scis­sors to trim off the excess bits around your hat brim. Then, trace your toi­let paper roll onto the cen­ter of your hat brim. Cut out slits radi­at­ing from the cen­ter to your traced cir­cle. These slits will allow you to slide your brim over your toi­let paper roll.

Step 6
Assem­ble your hat by push­ing the toi­let paper roll through your brim. Use duct tape to secure both pieces together and cre­ate your magician’s hat.

Step 7
Hot glue the rabbit’s head to the top por­tion of the painters stick (above the notch in the stick.) Leave the mid­dle of the body loose to ensure that the rab­bit folds into the hat.

Step 8
Hot glue the front, bot­tom por­tion of the bunny to the front, inside por­tion of the magician’s hat. (Note: Prior to glu­ing, move your rab­bit and stick in and out of your hat to see if you should shorten your rabbit’s torso. I started off with a rab­bit around 9 ½” but then shorted it down to 8 1/2″ because the torso was way too long and looked weird.)

Now you’ve got your­self a magician’s rab­bit pop-up pup­pet! Push the stick up and the rab­bit should pop out of the hat. Then, pull it down and the rab­bit will slide back into the hat.

I had a lot of fun design­ing and mak­ing this craft and my son adored play­ing with it. Hope you and your kids have fun mak­ing and play­ing with this mag­i­cal craft, too! Happy mak­ing, friends!