Thanks for the warm welcome, folks!

As soon as the Holidays are over, I plan on jumping into some heavy puppet construction. And, you can guarantee there will be TONS of pictures.

I won't lie, though-- Even with the Project Puppet patterns, I'm a little nervous about my first build. I've been pouring over threads here on the board for weeks, especially ones concerning mouth plate construction and different types of stitches. Hopefully, I don't embarrass myself too much when all is said and done.

Sounds like you have done your research.  I am sure you'll do fine.

Remember Bilbo: the road goes ever on...
Just start and you will be good, I am sure!

Welcome Aaron,
remember that everyone starts somewhere and you cant actually make a bad puppet, just differing levels of what you consider good, and you will probably not see what we do, what you May think isn't that good, may actually look awesome to us, so build and don't forget to post some pix!!!
also, don't be too ambitious on your first puppet, keep it simple and once you have the first one under your belt (not physically, just metaphorically, cos that would be weird) then you will have learnt something that you can add to and improve upon, trust me, after 14 years of building puppets, I'm still learning and improving, and the guys on this forum are a well of knowledge!!