Amazing Wonders Aviation Final Decorations

Bellow is a slideshow of the fully decorated rooms. Due to the time crunch this year, I was unable to post all of the how-to's for this year's decorations (plus I reused a lot of old decorations from previous years). If you have any questions about any of the decorations, please contact me, and I will be glad to explain how I made them. Hope everyone has an amazing VBS this year!

          

Click to View Amazing Wonders Aviation Decorations

Creating Your Own Great Barrier Reef

For those that have followed my blog in the past, y'all know how much I love using Great Stuff Expanding Foam. It is inexpensive, lightweight, and durable. I've used it in the past to make stalactites and termite mounds. This year I am using it to make coral for the craft room. When you use Great Stuff, be careful to keep it off your skin and other surfaces - it is very sticky.

How To

• First, cover your working area with wax paper. This will keep it off your furniture and make the foam easy to peel off once it dries. I usually take cardboard and line it with wax paper.
• Then spray the foam in the coral patterns you want. Follow the directions on the can for drying information. 
• Once it is dry, you can spray paint the foam to make it colorful and bright. I like mixing different colors to create different looks.

• After your coral has dried, carefully peel it off the wax paper. 

Now you have colorful coral to decorate your craft room!

"You, Mini-Man, takin' on the jellies. You've got serious thrill issues, dude. Awesome!"

Hemma Cord Set

The Jellyfish Lamp is probably the most intricate thing we are going to make this year (besides the airplane). I'm decorating the craft room with blue gossamer and fabric to create an underwater feel, so I wanted to make a unique light source that fits with the flow of the room. I decided upon a jellyfish because I thought it would look cool hanging from the ceiling. I used the Hemma Cord Set from Ikea as the light base. For the bulb, I chose a low temp energy saving light bulb to reduce the heat. The jellyfish shade is made out of Dura-lar. Dura-lar is a thick plastic overlay that has a pretty high heat tolerance. I chose a roll that was .007" thick. Alright, so onto the how to...

Jellyfish Lamp How To

• First, I traced a bowl to create a large circle on the Dura-lar and cut it out. I split it and rolled it into a funnel shape to make a lampshade. Then I cut the top inch off, so I could slip the lamp cord through it.

• Then I cut out petal shapes out of the Dura-lar. I made sure the petals were long enough to hang about a 1/2 inch off the clear lampshade. I used spray paint to paint the petals pink.

• Next, I superglued the petals around the lampshade. I chose superglue because it has a high heat tolerance. Every glue is different though, so check out the label on the back before you buy it. I chose Loctite Super Glue for plastics - dish washer safe. 

• After that, I cut out various shapes out of Dura-lar for its tentacles. I made some spirals, swirls, and fringes. Then I spray painted them pink as well. After they dried, I superglued them onto the clear lampshade, so they would not weigh the outer shell down. 

• After you attached all of its tentacles, you're finished! Your jellyfish is ready to swim in your Great Barrier Reef!

A Cloudy Day at the Falls...

The good news is that I have different types of 3D clouds for your decorating needs. The bad news is that I do not have step by step photos for this tutorial. I made these clouds awhile back for my friend's baby shower. Well, the night before the shower, she went into labor. So instead of decorating a fellowship hall full of clouds, I spent the night at the hospital. Now, I have a lot of clouds to use for VBS! Here's how to make them:

How To Make Pom-Pom Clouds

• First, stack 8 to 10 sheets of tissue paper. Make 1 1/2-inchwide accordion folds (longwise). Mine weren't perfectly even, so don't stress over it.
• Take floral wire and wrap it around the center of the folded paper. I twisted mine where I had what looked like a figure-eight in the center, so I would have loops to hang the cloud from and hang the rain drops off as well (I wish I had photos of this). 
• Trim the ends of the folded tissue paper off into a rounded shape.
• Separate the layers by pulling them away from the center one at a time. Fluff them into the shape you want.
• Next, I hung fishing line from the bottom floral wire loop. 
• I took blue paper hearts and folded them in half. Then I hot glued the fishing line into the center fold. Add as many or as little rain drops as you want. 

3D Cardstock Clouds

• First, draw a cloud pattern on large cardstock (I used this). It helps if your pattern is symmetrical.
• Trace the pattern until you have 3 paper cloud shapes.
• Next, crease each cloud in the center, so it makes a right angle.
• Line up each cloud so each of their centers are touching.
• Hot glue each half of the cloud onto the corresponding half of the neighboring cloud. Leave the bottom of the cloud unglued. Do this until all three clouds are attached to each other. This should form a 3D cloud.
• Then, cut strings of fishing line and cut out blue paper hearts. 
• Fold the blue hearts in half. Hot glue the fishing line into the center of the heart, and glue the heart together. 
• Take your strings of rain drops and glue them into the bottom of your cloud
• Seal up the bottom of the cloud with hot glue and you're finished!

Now you have two different types clouds for your Victoria Falls!

Since this tutorial isn't as clear as I would prefer, please email me if you have any questions.

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back

Sorry for the delay in getting things rolling. My time has been stretched thin, and I really let the months get away from me. Before I knew it, June was almost here! So, since I have procrastinated so much, I am really going to try to get everything completed in the next two weeks - we'll see how that goes, haha!

Here's an overview of what I hope to build, create, and paint:

• Jellyfish Lamp
• Clouds
• Airplane
• Rocks for Victoria Falls
• Coral 
• Seaweed stems
• Crates 
• Grand Canyon
• Printables

Of course, this is not definite - could be more or less. So, on that note, let's fire up the engines and get this plane moving!

It's closing time...

So, now that VBS is over, and I have finally recouped, I have uploaded photos of the fully decorated rooms. Due to work and preparing for VBS, the past couple weeks were really busy, and I know I did not blog as much as I would have liked. So, on that note, if you go through the photos and see anything that you have questions about, please don't hesitate to email me. I'll be glad to explain what I made or where I bought anything. I hope everyone has a successful VBS! I look forward to seeing everyone again next year as we get ready for the Amazing Wonders Aviation!

Click to View Decorated Rooms '11 Photo Album

The Lights of Broadway

I wanted to have at least one light up sign for the Worship Rally at Times Square. Since I was planning on mixing this in with my other Broadway Posters, I decided to showcase the Big Apple logo on this sign. Before I got started, I enlarged the logo and taped it together. 

How-To

• First, I used glossy Modge Podge to glue down the logo and seal it onto a piece of foam board. I painted over everything to make the entire foam board glossy.

• Then I made holes along the sides of the board, so I could push Christmas lights through them.  I used a wood burner to make the holes, but you could use anything sharp. Make sure you measure out the space between your holes so your lights will fit.  

• Finally I pushed the lights through the holes along to board. I put masking tape on the back to secure the the cord and the lights.

Now you have your own marquee on Broadway!