Hello!
New here and wanted to put a little bit about what I've done so far.

I manage teams of kids for the program DestinationImagination, and last year I wanted to do something special for the team, so I researched and made puppets for them.  I've done stuffed animals before, so it was very similar to that.

Each puppet looks similar to the child's character in the challenge they created.

This year I made two for our school auction in full school uniform:
I don't think the picture does them justice though. I think they look much better in person.


Then I made one to give to Ty Pennington when the Extreme Home Makeover came to our area.  I don't have a picture of that one to put up yet, but I tried to make it in the style of Ty...

And I made one for one of our Doctors who specializes in helping children.  He's been very helpful to our family, and I wanted to help him in some way.

I also have a monster and dolphin I made for my wife's Gluten-Free Kids group, and I'll get pictures of those when I can too.  I'll put up a web site with all of them on there.

When I started looking into puppet making, my intention was to start a group/class with the local children's theater group.  I still want to do that, but I'm working on my techniques now.

More soon.
This site has been great reading so far!
Thanks to you all!

welcome to Puppets and Stuff.............. i can see you are going to be right at home here. The one thing we love is for folks to share pictures of there puppet endeavors. I love all of them and Ty is a lucky guy to have gotten one from you. Thanks for sharing and hope to hear more about the work you do.

Billy D.

Great job on the puppets. Where in Michigan are you. I'm in Macomb, a half hour north of Detroit.  Putting in a plug for the Nov. 14 -15 puppet festival in Canton. Great place to get lots of good information.

Sue

CVZ - Welcome, you're doing a great job with your puppets.  I've heard of the DestinationImagination program its was a great idea to build puppets for your teams.  I grew up in Michigan, the last place I lived was in the Pontiac area.  We still get out there a time or two a year to see family.

Keep posting and tell us what your teams do with the puppets.

Welcome!  I agree that it was a GREAT idea to add puppets to the DI team!  Of course puppets make any project a better one don't they!  I know you will learn lots and have fun meeting everyone!!

Nice puppets and welcome.
Brenda

Welcome CVZ!  I'm from Michigan as well.  I'm in Grand Rapids.

  You have certainly been building away at such an early start.  They all have such fun bright looks to there faces and it sounds like you are having a lot of fun making them (that is the main thing).  I am glad that you found us and took the time to introduce yourself.  Ask any questions you may have and we will try to help you with an answer.

Daryl H

Nice puppets. To be the first ones, are really great! How you did the (I mean, you used any kind of patterns?)

Miguel!

Thanks all!

I'm in Lansing.   I didn't know about a puppet festival in Canton.
I'm sure I could convince the wife about that, and bring the kids.

The DI kids loved the puppets. Now, since I made them, they can't use them in the performances, but I thought it might inspire some of them for future ideas.

I think these turned out great for my first attempts.  The hot glue takes some time to get used to not letting it get away from me.
I think the next couple I did turned out even better, as I experiment and find different techniques.
I'll get more pictures up when I get them off the camera.

I used a pattern I created myself and modified for each different one.   I based these ones off the techniques that Paul posted in the Expert Village videos.  I think those were great showing the whole process.

I have done hand puppets in the past too, and stuffed animals out of a modified Care Bear pattern.