The Three R's of VBS

Each year I do my best to use the three R's of VBS: Reuse, Recover, and Refurbish. The three R's help me each year to save time and, more importantly, money. Over the weekend, I went through the storage and found a few things that could be used again this year.

Cokesbury's Circle G Arch

Back in 2005, I used Cokesbury's Circle G VBS. Our church still had the arch that was sold as decoration. I removed the Circle G logo and cut out out a new logo out of cardboard. I then dry brushed it and painted the Saddle Ridge Ranch logo.

Snow Owl

I used the owl when we did Arctic Edge. I bought a basic decoy hunting owl. I bought mine at Dick's Sporting Goods for around $5 (I got a discount because he only had one eye). These are great for decorating. They can be placed about anywhere to create some faux wildlife in a room. I repainted this one to turn him into a snow owl to fit the theme of Arctic Edge. I used acrylic paint to turn him white and fake snow paint around the base. For this year's theme, this isn't really necessary. You can use him just as he is if you do not want to paint.

Tumbleweeds

I made these for last year's VBS. They are very simple to make. I bought a grapevine wreath at Hobby Lobby. I clipped the vine that held the wreath together and then unraveled the entire wreath. Since it was already in a circle, all I had to do was take the vine and twist it in different directions to create a sphere. You can take floral wire and twist it around where the vine intersects to hold it together. Mine held together on its own, so I didn't have to use the wire. I was able to get three tumble weeds out of one wreath.

Former Termite Mounds

I used Great Stuff Expanding Foam to make termite mounds for last year's VBS. I took the foam and sprayed it a pattern on wax paper. Once it was dry, I peeled it off and painted the foam. I wanted to reuse them for this years theme, so I repainted them with the same brown and black spray paints that used on my other cave rocks. Now I can use them as cave rocks in the Firefly Caverns.

Farm Bags

I made these for the bible study room with the Boomerang Express theme. I cut up burlap and sewed small sacks that could be tied at the top. I stuffed them with whatever was laying around the house. They were great to stick in corners of the classroom. This year I am going to use them in Blazing Star Stables.

Blazing Star Lamp

I wanted to make some sort of light feature for the Blazing Star Stables. I decided to make a star paper lantern. Origami has never been my forte. I don't think I have the patience for it, but I found a step-by-step guide for making a 3D star that even I could follow.

3D Paper Star - Paper Star Ornament with Template

I added a few steps to make this fit our theme:

1. I started with black cardstock, but any dark color will work
2. After I completed cutting and folding the points (but haven't glued them yet), I used spray paint to get a metallic look. I chose a brown hammered finish.
3. Once the paint had dried, I used a hole punch to make a pattern in the cardstock. I chose a small circle, but any shape or pattern will work great.
4. Next, I used a glue stick to glue a layer of tissue paper on the inside of the star-points to cover the holes that I had punched.
5. After completing step four, I followed the guide and glued my folded points together. I used hot-glue to make it stronger
6. Once each folded point is glued together, I used the guide to hot-glue all the points together. Since I wanted this to light up, I held off on sealing together the final points on the bottom of the star.
7. Now, how you light the star is up to you. I chose to use Christmas lights. I fed a stream of lights up the points and secured the wires with masking tape. Since this made out of paper and paint, it is flammable, so be careful that your star never gets too hot.

Now you have a blazing star for stables!