This beautiful Paper Bag Frida Kahlo Puppet is a great way for kids to learn about the feisty Mexican artist and celebrate her amazing work.

Think about this – a little girl contracts polio at age 6, leading to a leg deformity. She gets involved in a major accident at 18, which destroys her pelvis, damages her back so severely that she ends up wearing 28 corsets for support and makes her unable to have a child. At the age of 46, she suffers from multiple infections leading to her right leg getting amputated.

You’d think that someone who has gone through so much would just manage to survive each day and not do much else. However, when it comes to Frida Kahlo, she didn’t just survive, she thrived – and how!

Frida Kahlo became one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century, besides being an active communist, feminist and voice for the downtrodden. Frida Kahlo’s life is truly one worth studying, if only to admire her sheer courage!

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Facts you didn’t know about Frida Kahlo

Gorgeous DIY Paper Bag Frida Kahlo Puppet

Supplies required:

How to make the Paper Bag Frida Kahlo Puppet:

Facts you didn’t know about Frida Kahlo

Frida actually wanted to be a doctor, but an accident kept her immobile, which led to her taking up painting
55 of Frida Kahlo’s 143 paintings are self-portraits, since she spent a lot of time by herself
Although she was incredibly proud of her Mexican heritage, Frida’s father was actually German
Frida Kahlo’s right leg was shorter and thinner than her left leg due to polio, which she hid under skirts
The artist spent a great part of her life in discomfort due to illnesses – she even ended up reaching her first solo exhibition in an ambulance
A 2002 movie based on Frida’s life, ‘Frida’, won two Academy Awards

As we enter into Frida Kahlo’s birthday month, it seems like a good opportunity to learn more about this feisty artist and how her work has influenced the art world. We hope this beautiful paper bag Frida Kahlo puppet will inspire to do just that!

Gorgeous DIY Paper Bag Frida Kahlo Puppet

Supplies required:

Craft paper in different colors
Brown paper bag
Pencil
Sharpies or markers
Scissors
Glue

How to make the Paper Bag Frida Kahlo Puppet:

1. Download and print the paper bag Frida Kahlo puppet template. The template includes Frida’s head, hair, eyes, cheeks, arms, top, skirt, collar, earrings and hair decoration.

2. Trace the parts of the template on craft papers of the appropriate colors and cut them out. We recommend going with a light brown for the skin parts and black for the hair. As for the outfit and accessories, you can go for any color you like, since Frida loved dressing in colorful clothes!

3. Make a slit in the hairpiece as shown below. It should indicate a hairline that starts from a high point in the middle and tapers down on either side.

4. Insert the head of the paper bag Frida Kahlo puppet into the slit of the hairpiece.

5. Let’s fill up that pretty face! Stick on the eyes and cheeks on the face, and the earrings on the ears. The face still looks like its missing something, so use a pencil to sketch out a nose, smile and that famous unibrow!

6. Once you are satisfied with the pencil drawings, go over them with a marker and fill in the blank spaces. Now our feisty Frido looks recognizable!

7. Let’s put aside the head of the paper bag Frida Kahlo puppet for a bit and put together the hair decoration. Stick the small flowers on either side of the big one. Attach the leaves with glue all around the flowers.

8. Stick the decoration on Frida’s hair with glue – that really gives Frida her character!

9. Time to put together the rest of the paper bag Frida Kahlo puppet. Gather the pieces of the top, skirt and collar. Remember that the width of these pieces should be the same as the width of the paper bag.

10. Assemble the outfit by sticking the skirt to the bottom edge of the top, and the collar to the upper edge of the top.

11. Apply glue to the front of the paper bag, below the folded flap, and stick the outfit on this.

12. Only one thing left to do now – stick the head on the folded flap of the brown paper bag and your paper bag Frida Kahlo puppet is complete!

Frida Kahlo was very proud of her Mexican identity, and you could see strong influences of the same in her outfit – long, colorful skirts, lots of jewelry and floral head embellishments. We’ve tried to include all these elements in our paper bag Frida Kahlo puppet craft, and we hope this will inspire kids to learn more about this amazing artist and her life!

If you enjoyed this paper bag Frida Kahlo puppet, you may also like these art projects based on female artists: