Paper Squishy Templates and 12 Ideas to Try This Weekend

A paper squishy template is just an outline you cut twice: one front, one back, taped together and stuffed until it puffs. The best paper squishy templates share three things — a simple silhouette, a face that reads from across the room, and a border wide enough to tape. Here’s how to draw your own, plus 12 designs worth a weekend.

Where to Get Templates (and Why Drawing Wins)

Free printable outlines are all over the internet, and coloring-page-style sheets work fine as a starting point. Print, color, laminate with tape, cut, done. For a five-year-old’s first build, printables remove every obstacle.

But drawn templates beat printed ones for anyone older, for two reasons. Original art is the social currency of this hobby — a traded build with your own character on it is worth ten printed ones. And drawing forces you to think about the silhouette, which is where most builds fail. Spiky, skinny shapes tear and refuse to puff. Blobs thrive.

The rule of thumb: if you can cut it out in under a minute without turning the scissors, it will stuff well.

Drawing Your Own Paper Squishies Template

Five minutes, start to finish.

1. Draw a fat, rounded outline that fills most of the sheet — think potato, not snowflake.
2. Add the face in the lower third: two dot eyes or sleepy curves, a tiny mouth, blush circles. Small features on a big shape is the whole kawaii trick.
3. Trace the outline onto a second sheet for the back — flip it so the layers mirror.
4. Leave a finger-width margin outside your line. That margin is your taping runway; skinny margins make leaky seams.
5. Color hard and bold. Pale colors disappear under tape lamination; saturated marker survives it.

That’s a template. Fold it into the standard build — laminate, cut, seal, stuff — and you’re squeezing your own character by snack time.

12 Paper Designs to Try This Weekend

1. Butter stick — the fat rectangle with a sleepy face. The template is basically drawn for you, and there’s a reason butter squishies went viral: the shape is comedy on its own.
2. Dumpling — a plump half-moon with pleat lines drawn on top. Our house favorite.
3. Boba cup — dome lid, straw, a scatter of pearl circles. Draw the pearls big.
4. Ghost — the classic wavy-bottom blob. Sharpie eyes, instant character.
5. Candy corn — three fat stripes, one triangle. The easiest template on this list.
6. Strawberry — round it out; real strawberry proportions tear at the tip.
7. Toast slice — square with shoulders. Add a jam blob for color.
8. Cloud — bumpy on top, flat on the bottom, smug little smile.
9. Axolotl — a blob with three frills per side. Keep the frills chunky.
10. Planet — circle plus a wide ring, drawn as one connected outline so it cuts clean.
11. Game controller — for the sibling who claims to be too old for this.
12. Letter initial — bubble-letter your initial. Avoid skinny letters; “I” people, draw it wide.

Food shapes dominate this list for the same reason they dominate real foam — the realistic food squishies guide gets into why food-with-a-face is so weirdly irresistible.

The Taping Trick for a Puffier Squish

Most flat, sad builds share one mistake: the layers were taped edge-to-edge while lying flat, so there’s no room inside. The fix is a gusset made of tape.

Instead of sealing the two layers flush, bridge the gap with the tape itself — let the strip arch slightly between front and back, like the side wall of an air mattress. Work around the border in short strips, keeping that arch. You’ve effectively added a third dimension, and the build will take noticeably more stuffing.

Second trick: stuff with shredded paper, not one crumpled wad. Lots of small pieces shift and re-settle under your fingers, which is what makes the squish feel alive instead of lumpy.

Third: stop at plump. Drum-tight builds split their seams within the hour, usually audibly, usually mid-class.

When Paper Butter Isn’t Enough

Fair warning about idea number one: once someone in the house draws the butter stick, an appetite for the real thing follows. Paper does the shape; it can’t do the dense, slow-motion press-and-return that made the shape famous.

The foam version is an easy upgrade. There’s the orange trick-or-treat butter squishy for a single test unit, the assorted bulk set when the whole craft group wants one, and the 12-pack display box if you’re supplying a classroom economy. The whole family lives in the butter squishy collection.

US orders over $30 ship free, and the 30-Day Squishfaction Guarantee applies — generous terms for settling a butter-related argument.

FAQ

Where can I find free paper squishy templates? Free printables are easy to find online — search for simple outline or coloring-page shapes and pick fat silhouettes. For anything you’ll trade or show off, draw your own; original characters carry the hobby.

What paper should I use? Regular printer paper is the standard: easy to cut, easy to laminate, puffs well. Construction paper looks nice but cracks along fold lines, and cardstock fights the tape.

Why won’t my paper squishy puff up? Almost always flat taping — the layers were sealed flush with no interior volume. Re-tape the border with a slight arch between layers, switch to shredded stuffing, and it will plump right up.

Are these okay for little kids? The craft suits early school age and up, with scissor supervision. Keep finished builds away from toddlers and babies — tape and small paper bits don’t belong anywhere near mouths, and squishy toys in general are rated 3+.