There are some things I've relinquished as a church volunteer (this year was my last co-chairing the Easter Festival for one), but doing the decor for VBS is THE one effort that is so very dear to my heart that I can't let go. I've told the chairman of VBS that I equate the work I do on VBS to spa days. They are that relaxing to me, knee deep in paint, tools and craftiness. This year's theme was Surf Shack, and I began planning in the Fall of the year before. In order to stay on budget and get the biggest bang for the buck, it pays to plan and purchase over a long period of time, taking advantage of sales, seasonal stock and using that 40% off coupon at each and every visit to Michaels and Hobby Lobby. I've gone into a lot of detail below about my process and materials, and included some tips in red! What would Surf Shack be without surfboards. I actually found some old sheets of insulation foam in the storage section of the church dock, and when I asked about using them, was told that they'd been there forever and to have at it! I traced a surfboard shape using a transparency and overhead projector. Then cut them out with an industrial-sized hot knife. A local high school student in need of community service hours, Raya, is one of my all-time go-to people for artistic help. I handed these off to her (along with cans of latex paint and brushes; spray paint didn't adhere to the foam very well), and she made a weekend project of it, along with some friends. [NOTE: I also painted the sides and backs of the boards. We used them for kids to hold at various pre-VBS promotional events, and so having them completed on all sides gave them a much more finished and authentic look. For VBS itself, they leaned against things.] Raya also took on the project of making these customized life preservers for the front doors of the church. I purchased round pieces of styrofoam from Michaels. They had flat fronts and backs, which I thought would be OK, but I wound up no liking how they were missing the rounded front-facing surface, so I took Dollar Tree pool noodles and cut them in half length-wise, and taped one half-moon noodle to the front of the styrofoam. Gave them to Raya along with white and navy duck tape and white rope. [NOTE: For extra artistic hands, reach out to your neighborhood high school art department. Students are always in need of community service hours. And what better way to earn them than doing what you love!] For the lettering, I typeset then printed out the words, cut out each letter, and Mod Podged them on. I poked a hole in the back of each preserver, and hung them from the doors using Command Strip hangers. A seagull printed out on the color printer, cut and taped on the inside of the window with double-sided tape, was a nice touch at the entrance. I knew I wanted lots of pilings around, and so I collected large cardboard tubes. Mine were salvaged from my workplace (where we had a surplus of shipping tubes ready to be recycled), but you could probably go to a carpet store or a display company and get them for free. I had one of the guys from church cut them at various heights (some straight across and others at an angle) using an electric saw. Then I cut cardboard pieces for the tops and taped them on. They got a sloppy coat of base paint, and then I went to work painting all the details, everything from the wood grain to the seaweed-stained bases. Once the detail painting was done, I hot-glued several pilings together, wrapped the trio with rope, and added the fishing net (another Dollar Tree find; purchased a bunch of these!) and a wooden pelican (affordable with the 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby). Another paper seagull and a poster completed this vignette. The poster is printed out from a large-output printer and mounted onto foam core. Command Strip hangers (the metal-hook kind) were perfect, as the hook went right into the foam without breaking through the front surface of the poster. Dollar Tree also had lots of these grass skirts, which I used for the roof of the Surf Shack and also, as shown here, to hang from handrails. Kids love touching stuff, and so I like to add tactile items all around. I also hung the skirts across the entrance to the sanctuary to set the stage for the tropical theme. Surfboards flanked the entryway, held in place with a small wad of Florist Cling. [NOTE: Cling is a great way to secure items. A little wad is all it takes. It comes off very easily, and if there is any residue left, just use a little Goo Be Gone. I always have a roll of Cling for every event I do. I have it in both green and white.] The jointed paper parrot is another Dollar Tree find. The side walls of our sanctuary are covered in cushioned and upholstered sound panels. I decided to drape rope (the same used for the front door life preservers) like a clothesline, and then hang beach towels from the line. The beach towels are from Dollar General. I chanced upon them when they were on sale for buy-one-get-one-half-off. At $6 a piece, the second one for $3, they were a bargain. I debated asking the congregation to donate old beach towels, but I knew I wanted fun, bright-colored ones, so I went the route of buying new. I hung the rope and secured the towels using T-pins. Then added the clothespins. The paper seagulls are used here as well. You can see that I secured them with extra long straight pins, not putting them flat against wall, but floating them to give them a more 3D look. Under the light sconces, and secured using T-pins, are Dollar Tree buckets and shovels holding brightly colored silk flowers. I printed out Surf Shack logos and glued them onto the front of the buckets. Here is a view from the altar to the back of the sanctuary. We have these six large windows which always push my creative thinking. I decided to turn them into aquariums. The window sills are about 3 inches deep, so I knew I could create a cool environment. I made coral using Great Stuff. [NOTE: This stuff is a VBS decor staple. Once a can is opened, you pretty much have to use it all in one sitting, AND you must wear rubber gloves as it's an absolute mess and hard to get off your skin. I use it not just for an adhesive, but for actually making things, like the coral here, and wave foam as you'll see further below.] I put down a large sheet of plastic tarp, and sprayed the coral shapes directly onto the tarp. Once dry, each piece of coral peeled right off. I made six whole pieces, one for each window. I spray-painted each. And secured it on the sill using Cling. The sea life is printed out on a color printer. I printed out a sheet, then created a mirror-image version of the document, printed that out. Cut out all the sea life and taped them so that each had a front and back. These were adhered to the coral and the window using either double-sided tape (on the window) or Cling (on the coral). Here are the windows from the other side (in the narthex). On this side, we've covered the window with blue cellophane, holding the cellophane in place with clear packing tape. I wanted a solid piece of cellophane on each window, and with the windows 40" wide, I wound up ordering the cellophane from U-Line. I couldn't find anything larger than 36" wide in stores. I had to buy 4 rolls (WAY more than I needed), but we used it for water for the Surf Shack set. And now onto the Surf Shack! Here is the altar area with the set. The Surf Shack is made of 2" thick 4'x8' foam, which a member of our congregation gets for me every year. It's not available at our local Home Depot or Lowe's, so he has to go to a special building supply company. But it's worth the extra effort. The stuff is super sturdy, but light enough to move easily. It cuts well if you use an industrial-strength hot knife (I get mine at Harbor Freight Tool). And it takes paint like a champ. I made up my own pattern for the shack, cut and painted each piece, then constructed it once in the sanctuary, attaching the pieces using long carpenter nails. The roof is covered in two layers of grass skirting. The hut has two windows and a half-Dutch door. One of our crafty ladies, Lavonne, made the latches using flexible sheets of foam (the kind kids use for art projects). She secured the latches using T-pins (she painted the top of the T black so you couldn't see them) and then gave them a little extra security with a drop of hot glue. The door opens and closes easily! She also hot-glued tall grasses around the base for that beachy vibe. I made a trip to Goodwill and got some touristy beach-shop t-shirts and a dress. Hung them from T-pins. Adding them last minute really helped to make an authentic Surf Shack feel. The tin signs (the Coke thermometer and Icee advertisement) were purchased from Hobby Lobby using my coupon. The card stock Surf Shack sign is from Cokesbury (I just cut it out from the colored background so it's "solid wood"). The wood grain is easily done using both dry and wet brush techniques. It doesn't need to be perfect. I used gray, black, brown and cream to achieve my look. [NOTE: I always go to my Ace hardware and ask for mixed paints on clearance. It's a crap shot as to whether they have a color in the family that I'm needing, but I've built a good enough relationship with my red vests, that they are always more than happy to drop in a few squirts of color for free to get me closer to what I need.] The tiki torches are from Dollar Tree. I removed the lids and wicks, and made "flames" from orange, red and yellow acetate. Rather than purchase expensive acetate from an art supply store, I found colored acetate subject dividers from Dollar Tree — cheap, cheap, cheap. Just cut them into flame shapes and hot glued them inside the lip of the lid. The rainbow umbrellas I used throughout are from Target. I purchased four at $15 a piece. They were available online only, but I had them shipped to my local store free of charge, and picked them up. Easy peasy. The palm trees were a true labor of love. I knew that to make a real statement, they'd have to be tall, but that would have involved a lot of supplies and engineering, so I opted for smaller ones that I staged from behind the Shack. Each trunk is 5 pool noodles taped together. Lavonne, always one to exercise her creative noggin when it comes to problem solving one of my hatched ideas, volunteered to cover the trunks, so she cut brown craft paper strips in a shingled pattern, gluing them on to the noodle structure in overlapping layers. For the palm fronds, I started with two umbrellas. Ripped the fabric off, spray-painted the metal framework green. Lavonne cut the fronds from green poster paper, then we painted on accents in a lighter shade of green. The fronds are attached to the spokes using hot glue. The handle of the umbrella fit perfectly into the center of the pool noodle trunk. The top of the noodles is covered in a nest of dried Spanish moss. Lavonne had some brown-feather-covered styrofoam balls which we both agreed would make great coconuts, but when they disappeared, she came up with this genius idea. Dollar Tree bath loofas spray-painted brown and hung from the spokes with safety pins look real and add no weigh to the structure. Love it! The engineering of the palm trees required an industrial-sized paint tub filled with sand, two broom sticks and a tall wooden table. The broom sticks were shoved in the bottoms of the trunks — far enough in to make the trunk rigid — with enough hanging out to be submerged into the sand. I still had to secure the one tree (the one out to the side and not using the shack for bearing) using fishing line to make sure it stay put. The line was around the trunk and then wrapped around a nail on the other side of the shack on the roofline. The surfboard/ocean backdrops are from Cokesbury. We attached them to rolling walls. I found a cute image of a pelican, printed him out, mounted him to foam core and put him high up on a ledge. We purchased the lifeguard stand from Cokesbury, but wound up using the doorway of the Shack as the staging area for our puppet. But the chair is a nice prop! Used the blue cellophane from U-Line as water. The hat, guitar, beach ball and flip flops are all from Dollar Tree. The "sand" is canvas drop cloths. The dock is made from a pallet. The pilings holding it up are small cardboard tubes. Everything is detailed to look like weathered wood. More pilings. I used one of my bird cages for decoration on the registration/information table in the atrium. Spray painted it brown, decorated it with silk flowers, lined the bottom with burlap, and added a Dollar Tree parrot cut-out (which is printed both sides!). As soon as we knew what our theme was, one of the gals on the Children's Ministry board sent me this picture in an email with a note that said "How about we do this for the individual camper photos? Ha ha!" Little did she know that I'd take her dead seriously and figure out a way to make it happen. One of the men in the church took on the challenge, and made a wooden wave, which is super sturdy and easy to move. With the help of another high school student (this one who paints sets for the school's drama department . . . well if that ain't a gift from God!!!), we got this painted to look super realistic! I found a wooden boogie board at Goodwill. With the back of it sliced off, it look just like a surf board. The foam of the wave is made with Great Foam on a base of cut foam insulation; Great Foam is also used around the base of the surfboard! On the Sunday before VBS, we had the wave outside of the front of the church. Parishioners loved posing on; wonderful picture-taking opp! We had Beach Boys music playing. And kids from the church carried surfboards and encouraged catching a wave! A couple other details. For the snack tables, we needed to label what was "dolphin," "sea turtle," and sand crab" — our three breakout groups. I had these pilings from when I did a nautical shower, and I was able to repurpose them here. The crab has a sand and shell base, and the dolphin and sea turtle have clear and blue marbles / glass baubles to mimic water. The animals themselves are glued onto a piece of clear acetate and just shoved into the sand/marbles. The animals are two-sided. For labeling the pews where each group sits, I had to not only designate by animal, but also by color. I purchased flip flops in colors I needed, and put the animal pictures on foam sheets also in the designated color. The flip flops were attached to the pews with Command Strips (the hooks embedded in the sole of the flip flop), and the foam sheets are hung with string. If you have any questions about anything you see here in the post, please don't hesitate to leave a comment here. Please make sure you leave your email address so that I can respond!
My grandchildren enjoyed another wonderful program at the Commerce Township Community Library. This time the theme was a Hawaiian Luau! I never would have thought to include Hula Hoops! They enj…
Camels & Chocolate celebrates 10 years of blogging by giving away one trip to a lucky winner.
There are some things I've relinquished as a church volunteer (this year was my last co-chairing the Easter Festival for one), but doing the...
DIY Hawaiian paper flowers. How to make tropical paper flowers for summer party decorations. Download the flower template printables or SVG cut files for your Cricut.
Download this template to craft a tropical flower garland or floral lei. Whether you want to brighten a party with festive color, or craft entirely in white for a wedding, these cutting files give you all the templates and know-how you need. This garland would look super cute at a Hawaiian luau-themed event or beach party. Drape the garland or hang multiple strands together to form a backdrop. Make a small version for a lei!Templates include an option for cutting by hand or with a Cricut or Silhouette cutting machine. Downloads also include written instructions (PDF) with links to how-to videos.
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Grab your Hawaiian shirts and feast on this Luau-themed Charcuterie treat! Our boards are the perfect blend of gourmet cheeses, meats, dips, veggies, fruits and crackers. Custom dietary options are available. Available for local Chicagoland, IL pick up/delivery only. Each of our products are uniquely made by our expert charcuterists. Due to seasonality, some items may vary. Check out the rest of our amazing CharCUTErie Boards!
This Hibiscus Flower Craft is super easy to make and only requires a few materials! This pretty tropical flower is a fun floral craft to make with the kids!
The Bahamas comprise about 700 different islands, so it is not surprising that most Bahamian cuisine comes from the sea. Tropical fruits and legumes are other staples found in the traditionally bright, fresh and flavorful dishes.
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This Sonic Ocean Water recipe is a must have for summer! Sprite or 7Up mixed with coconut extract for the perfect tropical mocktail! A little bit of food dye and some fish gummies really make it look like ocean water!
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To save time, you can also form these into larger patties and pan-fry in a non-stick skillet.
These authentic Hawaiian desserts will have you feeling the island vibes in no time at all. Perfect for your next Hawaiian-style BBQ or luau!
Aloha Nui Loa Aloha Nui Loa and Happy birthday Maile Lei
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Fun and decorative beach party foods. They're cute & clever. Everyone will love them!
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I and the children LOVE these AMAZING trash liner jellyfish. So simple, and yet such an amazing addition to our OCEAN/SEA theme. I have added a Youtube tutorial at the bottom. To make these I used two 10 gallon commercial trashcan liners, the ones for small office trash cans, at a cost of about 5 cents and about 10 minutes of time each. #1 The first liner is opened up, four "corners" [just grab the edge about every 1/4 around] brought together and stapled, then stuffed down into the center of the bag to create a bowl shape. #2 For the second liner, cut off the sealed edge. It is accordion folded in fourths. Unfold completely and fold over once to create a square, giving you four layers of plastic. Cut off the edges and cut into spiral. I did about a 1 - 1 1/4 inch thickness. The wider the strip the shorter the "tentacles." I didn't try to be that accurate or to make a perfect circle. I knew once they were opened out that it wouldn't matter. You end up with a pretty long strip. I folded it in half and cut it to create two strips of equal length. Since it's actually doubled over double layers, this gives you 8 tentacles total. Spread them all apart. \ If you try to attach them without separating them first, they will cling to one another and not fall properly to create the tentacle effect. Once separated, join them all together, placing them randomly together in a circle and stapling together. Since you have two sets of four of the same cut, this is important that they not sit perfectly together or it won't look right. Stick the tentacle staple up against the inside of the bowl shaped bag and push up with your hand. Collect all layers on the top, along with a string to hang if wanted, and staple. You can't see the staple on the ones I have up. The plastic folds over and hides it. The layers are: TENTACLES TOP OF BAG gathered together and folded over [pic below] BOTTOM CENTER OF BAG STRING FOR HANGING All are stapled through at once. I can now make them with just one stable through the whole thing, but it is easier to staple the tentacles first, then the top of the bag, then the combined pieces. These are WONDERFUL!! I'm so glad I came across the idea. I think my process is MUCH easier than the original instructions, which used clear rubber bands. This is an original idea of Casa Haus English that her daughter created for a school assignment. She placed her jellyfish creation on a stick and used it as a movable puppet. Our jellyfish did the same, which is really cool, but with 2 and 3-year-olds, playing with plastic bags just doesn't work. So, ours are hung from the ceiling. TUTORIAL I have received several emails about the bringing the "corners" together step, so have created the following tutorial. A couple of things to note is that for this one I used smaller liners than the ones in this post, and I folded the first liner in quarters rather than opening it out and folding it in half, so the tentacles came out shorter. Only the last staple is necessary. If you are making a lot of these, you'll probably get to the point where you can just hold it all together and only use the one staple. Tags: ocean, sea, theme, unit, preschool, kindergarten, child, care, childcare, daycare, beach, jellyfish, animals, craft, art, decoration, puppet, plastic, bag, trash, can, liner
Celebrate Island Style with these 25+ Hawaiian Party Foods. No matter what time of year it is, it's always a good idea to have a Hawaiian party!! Break out the Hawaiian party decor and make some delicious Hawaiian Party Foods... and celebrate life island style! We put together a great list of Hawaiian inspired recipes that are sure to brighten your mood AND your taste buds, we also have 2 very cute ways to serve it all up. Aloha! 1. Hawaiian Style Shoyu Chicken | NoBiggie 2. Hawaiian Mac Salad | NoBiggie 3. Pineapple Whip | NoBiggie 4. Slow Cooker
Saftig grün und lecker, der Kindercocktail „Waldmeister“ wird den Kleinen ganz bestimmt schmecken, zudem ist er auch ein richtig schöner Augenschmaus.
Hawaiian haupia is fresh and simple. A favorite at Hawaiian luaus and potlucks, this basic recipe is easy and quick to make. Only four ingredients!
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Browse honeymoons and destination weddings by location and theme, plus get travel tips and advice from the experts at BridalGuide
