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.

Thanksgiving Teepees

I host Thanksgiving each year and I like to have a fun activity available to anyone who would like to participate.  Last year I found a teepee printable on the Made With Happy blog.  I thought the kids and some of the adults would enjoy it.  I was pleasantly surprised at the participation, especially from one of the newest members of the family, my youngest sister's husband.  He is very creative and seems to be good at everything!  He took the teepee to new levels (literally).  Here are some of the creations:

 

My creative granddaughter's teepee

 

 

This one was done by one of my crazy nephews.

 

 

Not sure who did this one, but I like it.

 

 

My sister's family compound/reservation, including the royal palace complete with a hot tub and an outhouse.

 

 

Here's a close up.

 

 

Somebody burned the turkey!

 

 

My patriotic nephew's version

 

Not sure what we'll do this year.  I'm still trying to decide.  Hope we have as much fun as last year!

Falling Leaves

Just a quick post.  I ran across these pictures from several years ago.  I cut a bunch of leaves (and a few pumpkins) from black contact paper and applied them to my bathroom wall for a fun little addition to my skeleton shower curtain. 

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).

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 )

New Year Bulletin Board

Obviously this is another old bulletin board.  It was meant for the beginning of the new year, but it could be used for anytime (minus the year).  It's just a simple bulletin board encouraging church members to find what service best fits them.  The ones in the middle were highlighted and changed out weekly.

It's been so long ago I can't remember much of the details.  I do know the snowflakes were cut from sparkly prism-type paper (Crayola Stardust) which reflects the light and makes them look different colors.  I believe the puzzle pieces were cut using print and cut on the Silhouette Cameo.

Faith Girlz Fall Door and Sign

I guess I'm pretty out of season on this one, but I haven't posted in so long I just dug up whatever I could find.  This was our classroom door in the Fall of 2013.  I cut the tree out of a brown paper roll and just crinkled it up to give it texture.  I added the "hole" in the tree trunk intending to add some animal peeking out, but like so many other good intentions, it just never happened.  I'm sure he's in there somewhere, but I guess he is just a little more timid than I thought.  :-)  I cut the pumpkins out using one of my cutting machines (probably my Cricut, but I've slept since then, so I can't remember for sure).  The leaves were purchased at the Dollar Tree, as was the owl cutout.

My favorite part was the sign.  I cut it out of two layers of heavy textured cardstock and sanded it to make it more rustic.  The font was from the Pooh Font cartridge.  I added line details and "nails" (dots) with a very fine point brown Sharpie.  I hung it using some jute.  I was very pleased with how it turned out.  I wish the pictures showed the texture and dimension a little better.

Here is a scan of the sign.  The color is way off, but it shows some of the detail better.