Decorating for Agency D3
How are you doing on your National Thrift Store Day challenge? Check out Friday’s post from Courtney to find out the details of the challenge and how you could win a VBS 2014 Starter Kit of your choice! To kick-start your creativity and maybe give you a few ideas, let me show you what we did with a few thrift store finds of our own.
This “cone of silence”/domed fixture was a prominent feature of our decorations for The Lab (crafts rotation). Check out this video walk-thru and see how many more “thrift store finds” you can spot! Come on, super sleuths, you can do this!
Decorating- Crafts (Lab)-web from Lifeway VBS on Vimeo.
I really am disappointed in the theme for next year. I think the decorating will be extremely difficult and not appealing to kids. I also think that kids do not need VBS to be an electronic type theme. There is enough of that in this world. VBS should be bright and colorful and nature related. Just my opinion.
I agree with you. I also am not excited over this theme. I’m finding it difficult and expensive to decorate. The foam core boards are expensive at the Home Depot. Any kind of foam board will require a good bit of our decorating budget. We’re going to have to figure out how to use cardboard in place of the foam board. Also, trying to come up with props that look like anything reasonable is frustrating. I can’t wait for a theme that we can all relate to again.
Hi Pat,
We are really excited about the theme this year! We think kids are going to love it and definitely relate to it, but I do understand your concerns. Have you taken at look that the Decorating Made Easy book? It is full of small-scale decorating ideas. It is available here: https://www.lifeway.com/Product/VBS-2014-DECORATING-MADE-EASY-P005545885.
Also, have you seen any of our gadget-making blog posts? It’s very affordable to make gadgets that you can use to decorate your space. Check this one out: https://lifewayvbs.wpengine.com/2014/02/21/three-ways-to-use-gadget-making-in-your-vbs/
Lastly, be sure to follow our Facebook page. One of my favorite things about VBS directors/leaders is that they love to share ideas and help each other out. On our Facebook page you’ll see that several VBS leaders have already posted photos and how-tos of their creations.
I am in my “senior” years now, but I love electronics and mysteries, so this year’s theme is exciting to me. I think all the age groups are going to find it exciting and fun. The church I attend is small, so we do not have many rooms to decorate and are using cardboard extensively to create many of the props. I do think the decorating ideas provided with the VBS kit rely too heavily on the Styrofoam sheets. These are quite expensive for our small church budget, but I am finding many props in second-hand stores, dollar stores, and in my garage/attic. If you use the super poster set, your AV screen, and silver metallic tablecloths you can create a stage scene for far less money than those shown in the decorating booklet. Also, buy white paper and use an old overhead projector to help you create your own backdrops. Also, don’t forget to ask your doctor, nurse, and lab tech friends to donate some of the materials they use in their day to day work environment.
What really matters is not the theme, decorations, or props but the love of Christ we show to the children and the word of God that we teach to them. That can be done in any setting, with or without a theme…teaching the word of God, alone is something worth getting excited about! 🙂 Praying everyone has a blessed, successful, joy filled 2014 VBS!