Hampelmann tinker - DIY tutorial with PDF templates

Whether jumping jacks, jumping women or even jumping bear - the popular paper and cardboard jiggling figures are still very popular with children. The best thing about jumping jacks is that you can do it yourself very quickly and easily. We have put together for you a handful of crafting templates that you can easily tinker with your little ones. That's how it works.

You can design a jumping jack yourself and individually. Whether made of wood, foam rubber, paper or cardboard, in the form of humans, animals or plants - you can let your imagination run wild. To do this you simply have to cut out the outlines of the individual components from your material and then join them together as described in detail in the following instructions. As a little inspiration, we have put together some nice jigsaw templates on paper for you.

What you need for a jumping jack:

• scissors
• Decorative clips
• Needle, twine, yarn
• Working creatively
• possibly paints and brushes, other decoration material
• Printer and cardboard or paper
• Lochzange

Step 1:

Print out at the beginning one of our crafting templates for jumping jacks. Of course you should do this, you have not drawn your own template. Print the desired design on thick cardboard and not on plain printer paper. So the jumping jack is in hindsight also stable.

Tip: If you want to design a jumping jack yourself, you should take this into account. You need a counterpole for each movement, so the "joints" must always be planned in pairs. For a wolf, for example, this can be done by attaching the head on the left and the tail on the right, and these two parts will move as soon as the line is pulled. In a millipede you can also insert three or more pairs of joints.

1 of 3

• Download: Jumping Jack - Crafting Template - Elephant in color
• Download: Jumping Jack - Crafting Template - Elephant
• Download: Hampelmann - Crafting template - fairy in color
• Download: Jumping Jack - Crafting Template - Fairy
• Download: Jumping Jack - Crafting Template - Fox in color
• Download: Jumping Jack - Crafting Template - Fox

We have provided all templates in non-colored version for you. So you can paint yourself the elephant, the lovely fairy or the fox after printing. This works best with acrylic paints. The coloring with felt pens is of course also possible.

Step 2:

Now cut out all parts of the template - arms, legs, head, ears and body. This should work well with a simple craft scissors.

Step 3:

If you have carefully cut out all elements of the crafting template, the jumping jack will be put together. For this you now need the sample clips that you can buy in any stationery store. Use a punch to punch one hole for each arm and for each leg in the jumper's body. A punch does it too. Use the brackets to pin legs and arms through the holes in the designated place. Bend on the back of each clip so that everything is loose but not too tight.

The individual elements should be behind the body, which looks more beautiful. You are also welcome to place arms and legs on the body.

Step 4:

Now turn the jumping jack on his back. You must now connect the two arms, as well as the two legs together. Prick with needle and thread above the pattern clip of a leg.

Important: The jumper's joints should hang down at this step.

Now insert the needle above the other pattern clip on the other leg, exactly parallel opposite. Knot the thread so that both legs are connected with a piece of yarn. The thread must be firm and should not sag.

Repeat this process also for the two arms and all other elements in duplicate, which are attached to your jumping jack.

Step 5:

Now the train construction of the jumping jack still needs a longitudinal connection. For this, knot a long piece of string or thread on all cross connections. Below should then look out an ample piece of thread on which you can move later.

Step 6:

Now the jumping jack needs only some decoration like a wooden bead on the drawstring, feathers, pearls, glitter. Of course that's up to you and your creativity.

The suspension for the jumping jack can also be realized as desired. Either you pin the Wackelmann directly to the wall with a thumbtack or a nail or you attach a small hook on the back with tape.

Done is the home-made jumping jack!

Tips for quick readers:

• Draw or print a template
• Cut out all elements carefully
• punch one hole in each element
• connect all parts loosely with sample clips
• connect all joint pairs with a thread
• longitudinally connect all connections
• Pulling rope should look down