Trunk or Treat: Pandemic-Style

I think we all agree that 2020 came with challenges.  Most activities for the year were cancelled due to the pandemic.  By the time October came, our church decided it was important to have an activity for the children so we decided to proceed with our annual Trunk or Treat.  We looked for creative ways to be safe and socially distance.  I think most actually enjoyed the challenge.  There were a lot of fun ideas.  I'm not sure what made me think of this, but I decided to hand out the candy using a "vending machine".  

When the children approached the vending machine, my husband instructed them to put their bag at the end of the chute and speak into the machine their choice of candy.  

This is a close-up I took after the event was over and it was partially disassembled.  You can see here that as we ran out of a particular candy I would put an out of stock sticker over that selection.  It wasn't easy to access the candy that was actually inside the "machine", so this was the best I could do.  

This photo is bad, but I wanted to show the set up behind the scenes.  We arranged the candy on a shelf behind the vending machine with each candy labeled with its corresponding vending number.  I was standing behind the machine listening to the selection each child chose, and I would quickly drop it down the chute (seen to the right of this picture).  Occasionally the machine would "malfunction" and send extra candy, especially toward the end when I still had a lot of candy left.  It was fun, and the children (and adults) really got a kick out of it!

***********

I had nothing to do with this one (other than letting them borrow a few items), but I wanted to post it because I loved it.  My niece and nephew set up this lumberjack theme and handed out the candy using a remote control Jeep (that matched their own Jeep).  I thought it was so clever and cute!

 

It came ... and went ... months ago

It took me long enough to post them, but here are the pictures of our VBS set this past summer referred to in my last post HERE.  We did the "Shipwrecked" theme.  I'm posting this the middle of winter.  I guess I'm dreaming of warmer weather.  (Click on the pictures for a closer look.)

 

 

 Here is one view of the main stage.  This is the first year we have purchased the backdrop.  That was really helpful.

 

 

 

A closer look at the hut.  It was constructed using cardboard tubes (from carpet rolls) for the uprights, real bamboo for the cross bars and rafters, cardboard for the roof and covered with grass skirts from the Dollar Tree.

  

 

 

 Here is a close up of one of the palm trees.  We made these also from empty carpet tubes covered in brown paper scrunched up.  The leaves were made from green bulletin board paper with a wire taped down in the middle for shaping.  We used brown balloons for coconuts.  We got most of our ideas from other churches.  So grateful for all the help!

 

 

 

Just some more props.  (I see Wilson!)

 

 

 

 I think this says it all.

 

 

 

Looking back the other direction.

 

 

 

More palm trees and our sloth.  I had a lot of fun moving the props around each night.  The treasure chest was used for the children to drop their offerings in.

 

 

 

 This was about mid-week and the balloons were starting to lose air. 

 

 

 

 

 

It takes a while to make these sets, but I really enjoy doing it!  I had a great team helping and really appreciated everyone's hard work.

 

It's Coming...

VBS, that is!

 

This was the first version announcing our Vacation Bible School (Shipwrecked Theme).

 

A couple of weeks later I added a larger ship that was a little closer.  (I took off the smaller one but left it in this picture for comparison.)

 

Later I added photos of some of the volunteer staff.  I had a photo booth set up at our training session and I loved the pictures so I added them to the bulletin board.  When it was time for VBS I added the wrecked ship.  I will be adding pictures of the kids soon.

SOS - VBS Bulletin Board

 

We are in full swing preparing for VBS.  This year's theme is "Shipwrecked".  I did this bulletin board trying to recruit help. 

 

In this close-up you can see our VBS director in the porthole of the sinking ship pleading for help.  😄

He Is Risen!

I was asked to do a bulletin board for Easter.  I knew it would only be up for a few weeks and I needed to hurry, so I did this one in record time.  I did some creative recycling (starting to get the hang of that) by using the mountain from the bulletin board I was replacing (posted HERE).  I'm sure it is not geographically correct, but it gets the main point across.

Yee Haw! It's a Western Theme Party!

Since I'm not doing much crafting these days, I just keep digging up past projects.  This was my table for our ladies tea at church back in 2012.  I was pleased with how it turned out.

 

This is before I added all the details. 

 

After adding more accessories.  It was probably a little too cluttered/busy for some people's taste, but I liked it.  😊

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a close up of one of the table settings.  I made the placemats from old blue jeans.  For the plates, I started with a clear glass plate and put the design on using reverse decoupage.  Working from the backside (in reverse layering), I first put the cowboy themed cutouts which were made using my Slice machine and the Happy Trails design card.  The faux leather look was created by ripping kraft paper into small pieces and inking the edges of each piece, then overlapping the pieces until the area was completely covered.  For the final layer I used bandana fabric.  Each of the layers was adhered using Mod Podge.  I added a couple of extra coats to finish it off.

 

 

 

 

These two pictures show some of the details.  I was excited to find the cactus glasses at the Dollar Tree.  I personalized each one using vinyl.  I also added vinyl cutouts to each of the coffee mugs.  The tiny cowboy boots are keychains.  I used bandanas for napkins.  The little pails were from Logan's Roadhouse.  (I saved them from their little bucket desserts.)  I filled them with peanuts.

 

 

 

As you can see, I used a camping lantern and rope on top of two pieces of burlap (a light piece over a dark piece) as the centerpiece.  I added the small lanterns and cacti and then scattered small stones and cowboy themed cutouts.

 

 

 

Here is a better shot of the cactus glass.  I added the small cowboy hat and some jute for rope.  If you look closely you can see the wagon wheel coaster under the glass.

 

I sent my guests home with their whole table setting -- cowboy hat, plate, placemat, cactus glass, bandana napkin, bucket of peanuts, and cowboy boot keychain -- everything except the coffee mugs and silverware.

 

Everyone seemed to enjoy it, especially one of my guests who is from Texas.  😊

 

Pastor Appreciation Bulletin Board - Flowers

A few years ago I did a bulletin board for Pastor Appreciation (found HERE).  This year I finally got around to replacing it with this one.  Once again I had church members write short notes of encouragement and/or appreciation to the pastor and his wife, only this time I used flowers instead of lambs.  This one was also inspired by various ideas on Pinterest (my best friend).

Although I did plan ahead a little more for this one, I still ended up rushing through the assembly.  I cut the flowers out a couple of weeks in advance and handed them out, but I had to wait for them to be returned to me before I could put it all together.  I decided the flowers needed to be inked so I did that last minute too.  Fortunately, I was able to reuse the cloud border from some previous bulletin board, and I made a similar shaped border for the bottom to resemble bushes.

Unfortunately, the photo is not very good, but I added two tiny butterflies and bent their wings to make them 3-D.  Except for the ones for the word "GROW", the flower stems and leaves were drawn after I had already stapled down the flowers.  (Definitely not the best way to do it, but I had to come back and add them later because I just ran out of time).

Spring Explosion Box

Here are some close-ups of the explosion box mentioned in this post.  It has been so long ago I don't remember many details, but if anyone really cares you are welcome to ask and I'll try to answer any questions.  You can't see it very well in the picture, but the line of green beads is supposed to be a caterpillar. 

Then when you open the box, a butterfly emerges.

This picture shows a little of the detail.  You can barely tell that the corners are punched/embossed.  Each of the boxes I made had different butterfly stickers added.  This one probably was the one I liked least, so I kept it for myself.

 

Ladies Tea 2011

This was from the 2011 annual Ladies Tea at church.  It was my first attempt at anything like this.  I was really outside my comfort zone and very intimidated.  Each table is decorated by a different lady (or team).  The other ladies are so creative and talented.  I won't show their tables so mine won't look so bad.  :-)

We were supposed to give each lady at our table an inexpensive favor.  I made these explosion boxes.  I had planned to give them photos from the tea to add to the inside.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  Oh well.  The ladies at my table were my friends and family and they still love me.  I didn't get a picture of the inside of the boxes because I had stayed up all night finishing the boxes and was running late.  But I do still have one so maybe I'll post more about it later.  (Update:  I posted about the explosion box here.)

I made these as place cards.  My sweet daughter wrote the names for me because she is so much better at that than I am.  The bottom one was for my niece who was 8 months pregnant at the time.  :-)

The centerpiece I made.

This shows what I did for chair covers.  I used white pillowcases over the chairs and then just added the bows and butterflies.

It was near Easter so I made the theme for mine Spring/Rebirth.  I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out, but it was ok and we all had a good time.

Another Bulletin Board

A while back I told my husband I was done with bulletin boards for a while, but soon after I said that I was specifically asked by the church secretary to decorate two bulletin boards in the hallway outside the church offices.  I was in the middle of helping with my daughter's wedding and a baby shower for my daughter-in-law.  I told her I needed to get through the craziness and then I would see what I could do.

Now, a full year later, I finally got one of them done.  I have a plan for the other one, but I am facing some more craziness, so that one will have to wait a little while longer (hopefully not a year).

For this one, I blended ideas I found on Pinterest and other places on the internet.  I used burlap as the background and burlap ribbon for the border.  The Bible verse was specifically requested by the secretary.  For the mountain I just very quickly tore kraft paper and crumpled it for texture.  The little climbing man was recycled from another bulletin board I had previously done.  (I guess I still need to post that one.)  This is a simpler version than what I originally planned (in fact I had several completely different ideas through the course of a year), but I was on a bit of a time crunch and just wanted to get it done.  I put it up in record time (for me, at least). 

VBS Rewind - Colossal Coaster World

It's summer, so that means Vacation Bible School.  Our church used to do much more elaborate setups than we have in the past couple of years.  These pictures are from the last year of big decorations.  Our director at the time really enjoyed planning VBS sets.  It was a lot of fun but also a lot of hard work.  Sadly, he passed away suddenly last year.

 

The theme for this particular year was Colossal Coaster World.  My husband built the roller coaster car.  I put the stripe down the side using vinyl and cut the letters on one of my cutting machines.  My nephew made the cardboard cutout people.  The swing ride was borrowed from another church.

 

I made the carousel from cardboard.  Using a projector, I enlarged a carousel horse from purchased clip art and traced, cut out and painted three.  I cut the trim around the top from poster board using my Cricut machine and added some signs given to us by another church.  The poles are painted PVC pipe. 

 

 

The ducks in the shooting duck game were cut on my Cricut from "A Child's Year" cartridge.

 

Sometimes you have to get creative to work with what you have.  This was the room where the children made their crafts.  The room had an unused chalkboard which I turned into a ticket booth.  This room also has footprints painted on the walls, so we cut out balloons to cover them on one wall and my daughter cut out a paint palette and paint splotches to cover some of them on the other wall.  We left some footprints to appear someone stepped in the paint.

 

One of the men in the church did these booths from cardboard.  I thought they turned out cute.  That's Paul (formerly Saul) working the popcorn booth.  ;-)

 

Here is an overall view of the sanctuary.

 

This was one of the crafts the children made.  I designed them in Cricut Craft Room combining some glasses from the "3 Birds - Life's a Party" cartridge and a roller coaster from the "Carousel" cartridge.  I also cut a slit so the coaster car could move along the tracks.  It is attached with brad "wheels".  The children decorated the glasses as their craft that day.  I think they enjoyed making them and wearing them.

 

(See post about VBS Colossal Coaster World bulletin board HERE )