Poppets are simple enough to make. They are simply an effigy of the person you wish to have an effect on. They can be made a many ways depending on what you are trying to accomplish. Most would include personal effects such as hair or nail clippings from the person. I have found making a cloth one out of an article of the persons clothing to be highly effective.
Do not confuse sympathetic magic such as this with voodoo. While it does use items such as poppets, it has more to do with working with spirits ie. the loa. It is a lifetime practice that is not well mixed with others.
The loa are spirits of voodoo but also pertain to more than just voodoo. Just because it's a practice that involves a popper does not mean it's not voodoo. There's a good reason why these poppets are called voodoo dolls.
Now as for making a doll. You can make a doll out of clay. Just get some model gray clay and shape it to a human figure. If you are really tallented with cutting and sewing, you could shape and cut out from close a basic figure of a person, sew a couple of these together, and stuff it with cotton. Of course I'm sure that would be harder than it sounds. I have also seen plenty dolls made by the person tying a Buchanan of small sticks and twigs together shaping them as the human body. And of course you could try to find a store that sells poppets and buy some.
Look up "dollies" and "poppets" along with the key word magic or magick. You'll find far more authentic ways than "voodoo dolls". Corn dollies, straw dollies, and string dolls are the oldest forms. They serve many wonderful purposes.
well ive written a fourm on my profeil aweil ago it should still be there look under my history if not im going to point fingers at Mentis Amour they are very good with voodoo magick and will probably help you.