VBS Crafts Days 1 & 2

We are having the Western-themed VBS at our church. You'd think with the plethora of ideas available that crafts wouldn't be an issue. Add a huge span of ages and thus abilities, plus cost control for up to 180 kids, and it becomes one.

I have three age groups that come through during the morning. They are kids going into K-1st grade, kids going into 2nd-4th grades, and kids going into 5th-7th grades.

Today the youngest group made prayer boxes, courtesy of Oriental Trading company.

The two oldest groups made prayer journals. I spent part of the weekend separating two packages of 500 self-stick foam shapes each into 120 individual bags. That was so we didn't have fussing over horses and cows and boots and hats and, "I didn't get any big shapes," and, "He got seven big shapes," and you get the picture.


We purchased 6x9 foam rectangles in bulk from Discount School Supply. We also purchased some bulk white sulphite paper in 12x9 and then cut it in half to 6x9. A local print shop cut the seven holes for us.

We cut jute twine in 4 foot lengths, and then used masking tape on both ends to make the equivalent of shoelace aglets. It helped to lace the twine.

We put 25 sheets in each journal and started the bottom of every one. We wanted to get the knot tied and make sure it was loose enough so the kids knew they needed to lace it loosely so they could open the journal.

When the kids came in today, they laced the journal, knotted the top, and then we had some enamel charms we gave them, also from Oriental Trading. They were smaller than we originally anticipated, so the kids had to 'roll' their aglets to get them round and tight to go through the jewelry ring on the charms.

They laced it to the top of the journal and then tied another knot.

They put another charm on and left it towards the bottom of the twine, tying a knot to keep it in place.

It serves as a bookmark for the prayer journal.

They decorated the front with the self-stick foam shapes, also from Oriental Trading, and wrote with Sharpie markers if they wanted.

Tomorrow we are painting wooden articulated snakes that were available from Discount School Supply and Oriental Trading by the dozen.

We are using liquid watercolor paint that we purchased from Discount School Supply. I painted my sample like the colors of the rainbow just to show the kids and also to get an idea how long it would take, just as an example for the ambitious kids.

I love this paint. It doesn't take much at all, it dries quickly, and it's really simple to use. I had to be careful because it wanted to spread easily from each piece if they were touching and the brush was especially wet (you can probably tell where a couple of the colors did that). I even watered down the blue and it made it lighter. I'm sure all of the colors would work that way.

I've never painted with a passel of kids. I may not be so enthusiastic this time tomorrow. Or maybe I will because it will all be over.