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.  😄

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.  😊

 

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. 

Mr. Bones Celebrates Valentine's Day

Well, I told you Mr. Bones would be making appearances from time to time.  As I mentioned previously, when I created Mr. Bones I had no idea how much fun he would be.  This post is about the Valentine's Day following his creation.  This was where the real fun began because the whole family got involved.

I had decorated him for Valentine's Day (most likely in the middle of the night while the family was asleep) and apparently my family thought they would add to the fun.  On Valentine's Day my husband (not much of a romantic, but sometimes he at least tries) left his Valentine wishes for me on a large heart placed on the skeleton.  (I was impressed he had cut the heart out by himself!  He just got lucky he didn't use some of my treasured paper!)

At some other time (I can't remember if it was before or after my husband's addition) my daughter added the moustache and monocle.  (Or maybe it was the hat and monocle.  Or maybe all three.)  I got a big kick out of both of them joining in on the fun!

This was four years ago, so I don't remember the details all that well.  (I barely remember yesterday).  Most of the accessories I made were from Cricut cartridges.  The Valentine card (Bee Mine) was from the Spring Holiday Cards cartridge.  The teddy bear and accessories were from the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge.  The dog is from Create a Critter.  The hearts (other than the one my hubby cut out) were probably various punches.  I can't remember where the teacup was from, possibly cut using my Slice machine. 

This was one of the best Valentine's Day surprises for me.  I loved it!

If you missed my other posts about Mr. Bones, you can read about him HERE and HERE

Mr. Bones - My Crazy Skeleton

We like to have fun at our house and tend to get a bit silly at times.  A few years ago Cricut had a Halloween contest using images from A Frightful Affair/Movable Monsters.  For my contest entry I made the shower curtain featured HERE.  Before cutting the vinyl skeleton for the shower curtain, I made a practice skeleton out of poster board to plan sizing and posing.  Not wanting it to go to waste, I dressed it up a bit and hung it on a wall (which just happened to suit my need as a backdrop).  Little did I know how much fun we would later have with Mr. Bones.  I hope to post more about that in the near future.

 

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 )

No Greater Love

This was the bulletin board I did for February.  It is very simple but has a powerful message.

I used the print and cut feature on my Silhouette to cut the heart with the Scripture verse (John 3:16).  The cross is cut from faux woodgrain contact paper using the New Testament Cricut cartridge.  The text for the title was cut from vinyl using my Silhouette.

Skeleton Shower Curtain

Since I'm getting back to blog posting and Halloween is quickly approaching, I thought I'd post this project from last year.  (Yes, I am really, really behind.)  I made this skeleton shower curtain for a Cricut contest using images from A Frightful Affair/Movable Monsters cartridge.   I don't really get into the scary part of Halloween, but I have had a blast with this skeleton!  (I hope to post the other projects eventually.)

The skeleton cut is from Movable Monsters, but it is also available as an individual cut which is what I bought.  Cricut had some of the cuts (including the skeleton) for free use during the contest, but when I saw how much fun I was having with the skeleton I had to buy it.

The bats, spiders and spider webs are from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge.  The shower brush is from Everyday Paper Dolls.  The paper doll cartridges are among my favorites.  They have a little bit of everything.  The rubber ducky and the bubbles are from A Child's Year.

 

 

T's Giraffe Wall Art

For T's birthday you can never go wrong with a giraffe.  Instead of making her a card, I wanted to go much bigger (now that I have the capability using my Silhouette Cameo).  As usual I had to relearn the little bit I knew.  I really need to make time to use it every few days at least for a while so maybe the info will stick in this old brain of mine.

The giraffe cut is from KaDoodle Bug Designs' Watch Me Grow set.  I was a bit disappointed that you can see through the yellow contact paper I used, but that's what I get for being cheap.   In fact, nothing really worked out as I planned.  I wanted to put it on the wall by her bed, but the contact paper wouldn't stick to the textured wallpaper.  The only place I could put it was on the closet door which is partially hidden by her wheelchair.  After I started assembling the giraffe parts, I realized I was not going to be able to position the "arms" the way I had planned.  (I wanted them outstretched a bit more.  Also, there was no room to put the tail, so I just left it off.  I was hoping to change out the banner for the different seasons/holidays.  We'll see if it even stays up there.

If she could talk, I know T would tell me she loves it anyway.  And she would laugh.  I miss her laugh.