We use One Way Street Resource Catalog out of Englewood, Colorado. 303-790-1188
www.onewaystreet.com now called "Creative Ministry Solutions".

My favorite source of a "pattern" on how to make puppets is found in the book by Kurt Hunter, Puppets, Kids, and Christian Education

More on his "handle bag" rod puppets can be found here.

More photos of these puppets in use at our church can be found here.

Combining several other replies to this topic...

A post by "psalm_77"

Making Puppets out of Stuffed Animals
One easy and cheap way to make puppets is to go to your local thrift store/rummage sales and get stuffed animals.

• Open them up from the back and take out enough stuffing to be able to work them as puppets.  I usually leave in most of the head and arm stuffing in.
• The beanie baby toys work really well for small hands!
• It's especially nice for puppets that you wouldn't use very often... for example, we used a free skit found on the net for our preschoolers called (I think) "Glad I'm not a Turkey". The characters were a sheep and an eagle, which we changed to a rooster because I found a small stuffed rooster at the Goodwill for 49 cents. 

Posted by "RevCarolyn"

You can get male and female Bible figures in a variety of skin and hair tones. High-quality stuff. Great price. I even ordered a few modern day puppets. www.puppetpartners.com

Posted by "Rotation Friend"

Just came across this very fun puppet idea using tennis balls!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZcX0hxIjmU

Book:  "The Foam Book: An Easy guide to Building Polyfoam Puppets" (9780967857503).

From the book I used the method to craft Mouth Rod puppets out of upholstery foam.

I made a generic "Bible Man" and "Bible Woman" (very old and wise of course) and use them to tell stories.

Inexpensive pre-sewn puppet shapes to create your own puppets by Chenille Kraft.

To purchase do on-line search for sites/stores that carry them (search words "Canvas Mouth or Body Puppets 6 pack"). 

Two styles to choose from:

1. "Canvas Mouth Puppets" (pkg of 6) - each Measures 9.5" x 5.25". . 
2. "Canvas Hand Puppets" (pkg of 6) - each Measures 9.5" x 9.5".

• Made from heavyweight canvas.
• Design your own puppet characters (can be painted on and embellished with all types of materials).
• Thinking with strategically placed velcro you can quickly change an outfit, hair colour, add a mustache, etc.

I just received an Oriental Trading catalog, and it has some cute "Happy Kids Hand Puppets" -- these would be great for role playing and modern day story types of puppet activities. Or I imagine you could dress them up in simple Bible times tunics and headdresses for simple Bible times puppets.

See how happy they look!?!  

So, while I was at www.orientaltrading.com I decided to do a search for Bible puppets and found these finger puppets. Not as much fun as talking mouth puppets, but cute (and cheap!). (Note that the one review is a negative one, that they are not very sturdy)

 Other finger puppet choices for Christmas and Easter:

Remember that Oriental Trading changes merchandise often, so search their site for "Bible puppets" and see what you find when you need to buy.