You'll get better the more you do.   It might help you even on eye focus if you have the puppet closer to the camera so he fills the frame more.  He got a bit lost in things. Good job... love the tip at the first.

We have a member that does graphic work and has done many of our members logos. Titere: http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php?action=profile;u=1961  You can try contacting her.   She works pretty fast and for a really good price.

The main thing you need to look for when you buy your Contact Cement is that it is not Rubber Cement.   Folks very often confuse the two.  Contact Cement is more often found in hardware stores and Rubber Cement is in like office supplies. 3M makes a couple varieties of Contact Cement and they even have a water based one that is not as toxic.  Regular Contact Cement is very toxic and you need to use it in a well ventilated area.  You might even need to wear a breathing mask when you work with it.  I don't and never have used a mask but then I no longer have any brain cells left to kill.   

I use "upholstery" foam all the time.  It really is no different then regular poly foam that you get at a store like JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby. I buy all my foam direct from a company that supplies foam to companies that make upholstery.

Actually Na the picture that was referenced by ajc24 are a glove hand puppets.  These would actually work very well for picking things up since in essence they are just "gloves" on your hand. The only thing is they do not have moving mouths.  It could be they would work very well for you if you don't really need a moving mouth. 

A similar look could achieved by the Glorified Sock pattern as Na mentioned and you would have a moving mouth but then you give up the ability for the "hands" top pick things up easily.  You can attach rods to the hands and manipulate them that way but it takes to hands (one in the mouth and one on the two rods) to accomplish this and quite a bit of practice. You limited to the weight of things you can pick up for the reasons Na mentioned.

For what I was using the Mod Podge on, you really don't need the sealing aspects of the product. White glue or even wheat paste could be used instead.  At the time of the tutorials I was not able to get to a store that had wheat paste or wall paper paste so I decided to substitute the Mod Podge and see how it worked.

Welcome back SHould!

Great work Na! Very fresh and inviting.  I started to ask what CMS you where using but then figured it out.  Good choice.   I love the tabs... very fun.

Now if you can just get all your users to update their profiles.

That was priceless! I love the fact that the puppets do puppets.  You do have to watch it all the way to the end folks but don't turn your volume up to high.

That was pretty cool. I wonder how soon we'll be seeing here on stage or on a show?

Fairy tales always work for things like this. If you wanted to develop more down the line you can always try to set up collaborations with the authors of children books. One way you can present things like this is to have a story teller who reads the book out front and then the puppets either act out different parts you read or the respond in some way to what you are reading.

I regards to your worries about rather you are still ministering or not, there are a multitude of ministries out there that are not specifically focused on teaching the bible. Often times they are simply offering a badly needed service to the community. Don't forget that the best teacher is example.    I must confess though that my view is not typical one and that your church may not have the same one. It might be best to ask your minister about this and if he thinks it would be ok.