FOR THE KIDS : A Bug, a Frog, a Kiss and Some Fun at Hand : Puppeteer began with a washcloth and a cross child. Now she has 30 marionettes, 100 hand puppets and a love of performing.

Meet E. Bladimus Plabida. He’s an ornery bug who resides on the hand of puppeteer Arla Crane. It’s there that he tangles with fellow puppet Frederico, a good-hearted frog.

Somehow it all ends with a kiss. Happy endings are the norm in Crane’s Alphabet Soup Puppeteers productions.

E. Bladimus and Fred, along with a cast of other colorful personalities, will be taking the stage Saturday at the Camarillo Art Center, 3150 Ponderosa Drive. Show time is 11 a.m.

Kids will get more than a puppet show. After the performance, Crane will hold a workshop to show them how to make paper hand puppets. The cost for both is $3.

Crane knows puppets inside out. She has about 30 marionettes and another 100 or so hand puppets that she and her husband, Jay, have made over the years.

It’s a painstaking art. The basic marionette takes 40 to 100 hours to build, using a mold for the body. For a more elaborate puppet, with eyes that blink, for instance, it might take up to 200 hours.

She has had time to perfect the art. Her Camarillo-based Alphabet Soup Puppeteers has been around since 1976, performing for schools, fairs, birthday parties and television.

“I backed into it, really,” Crane said, explaining her humble start. Her two sons were young then and one of them hated having his face washed. So one day Crane put a washcloth over her hand and started talking to him, hoping to distract him while she scrubbed.

“He started talking back--to the hand, as if it were real,” she recalled. It was then that she realized that children have the ability to give life to inanimate things. She began doing puppet shows for children at the local library, where she worked part time.

“I’ve been hooked ever since,” she said. She joined the Central Coast Puppetry Guild, a tri-county group with members from San Luis Obispo to Thousand Oaks, and honed her puppetry skills.

She does a one-woman show, writing the skits herself. She is turned off by the violence of some of the traditional fairy tales, preferring a Sesame Street approach.

During her shows, she involves the children, sometimes getting them to help create a character or help with the plot. “Children have a thousand stories in them,” she said.

Saturday’s show and workshop is aimed at kids 2 to 8 years old. All supplies for making the puppets will be provided.

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Games, games, games, all day long. That’s what’s on tap at the Gull Wings Children’s Museum in Oxnard on Saturday. Kids can play ring-toss or throw bean bags or play hide-and-seek. The day of games is one of the museum’s most popular events.

The museum is at 418 W. 4th St., Oxnard. For information, call 483-3005.

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The Conejo Symphony Orchestra is going for a lighter touch in a family concert Sunday at Royal High School, 1402 Royal Ave., Simi Valley. Concert highlights include selections from “Phantom of the Opera,” the “Olympic Fanfare” and movie themes.

The concert, under the direction of Howard Sonstegard, begins at 7 p.m. Tickets, available at the door, are $4 for adults and $2 for children. Call 495-7833 for information.

Details

* WHAT: Performance and workshop by Alphabet Soup Puppeteers.

* WHEN: Saturday, 11 a.m.

* WHERE: Camarillo Art Center, 3150 Ponderosa Drive.

* COST: $3.

* FYI: Event is geared for kids 2 to 8 years old. All supplies provided. For information, call 493-7707.