7.28.2010

Camp Cornerstone- Bible Boot Camp (Armor of God) Crafts

Our church had their Vacation Bible School (we call it Camp Cornerstone) last week, and my friend Whitney and I were in charge of crafts.

The theme for the week was Bible Boot Camp (the Armor of God), and we used this free VBS curriculum: http://ministry-to-children.com/free-vacation-bible-school/ written by Tara Merrill.

One of the men in the church let us decorate his Jeep and left it at the entrance of VBS.

I made some vinyl with my Silhouette machine and put it on there to make it more authentic looking.
I'll post some more pics of the decorations soon in case they can be helpful to someone else!

We decided to tweak the crafts to make them work a little better for our needs. We had around 109 kids, 5 years old through 6 graders!

Here's what we came up with:

"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist..."


We talked about how belts hold everything together, and in the same way, so does God's truth.

(Canvas Belts ordered from S&S Worldwide, decorated with stencils made from my Silhouette machine out of vinyl. I used this ARMY font. They colored them with Elmer's Paint Markers & Sharpies, and then used glitter glue for extra touches.)
"with the breastplate of righteousness in place..."
We talked about how breastplates protect our hearts, and one of the ways as Christians we can protect our hearts is by learning God's Word.

(We ordered 8x10 canvasses from S&S Worldwide, and painted a shield on it using a homemade stencil made from my Silhouette machine and cardstock. Whitney created a graphic with the Bible verse, and they mod podged it on. We used plain ol' acrylic craft paints- 3 for $1 at Michael's!- and more glitter glue. This particular one was made by my 4 year old.)


"and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace"


We talked about how we needed to be ready to bring the Gospel to others.

(Boots cut on.... my Silhouette! Of course! Then liberal amounts of Elmer's glue was spread across the boot, and little squares of tissue paper were glued on. Whitney made the peace sign in about 5 seconds when I emailed her freaking out about how I wasn't able to get 120 "peace" words cut out in time. She saved the day and made them look even cuter. We punched holes in the top and let the kids tie a bow, and then added a magnet to the back. If we'd had more time, we were going to let them lace up the boots, but alas... )


"In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."

We didn't get to come to this day because Em was puking (I think she got a little dehydrated). Fun times! We had a small mix up and originally were going to do Bible covers out of scrapbook paper as "shields" for our Bibles, but we ended up switching it up to make "shield bugs" out of paper plates. I need to get a pic of them from someone else who was there that day.

One of the great things about VBS - learning to be flexible and learning to work as a team. :) I'm SO thankful I had Whitney there with her creative brain.

"Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.."

(We made Sword bookmarks and Salvation helmets. The sword bookmarks were cut on my Silhouette, and then the kids glued tin foil on the backs. We cut two rectangles of scrapbook paper VERY generously donated by Heidi Lacy of Twelve Fridays Weekends. The smaller rectangle was 2 x 5 1/2", and the larger was 3 x 6". Because Heidi sent us SO much paper and we were originally going to use them for Bible covers, we are going to utilize the paper in other crafts for the kids & youth at church, and I will post them here when I do. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, Heidi!) :)

Whitney whipped up these cool paper helmets that the kiddos colored, and we bradded together for them.
It was a lot of work, but man, was it fun! The kids had a blast with all these crafts!

If you have any questions, please leave 'em in the comments and I'll reply. I would love to be a help to anyone who is doing their VBS with this theme. :)





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30 comments:

  1. So when I teach Sunday School this Fall, you're going to loan me your Silhouette, right?! :D In all seriousness, these are terrific! I've done crafts for that age group and it's TOUGH! But these are amazing! It does inspire me to teach SS this Fall! ;)

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  2. Thanks for posting these pictures. I've linked them from our page, they will be helpful to others.

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  3. what fabulous crafts!! you are making me want a silhouette more and more!!

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  4. This is half entertaining. But then again I am extremely high right now

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  5. How inspiring! Do you have a pattern for the helmet that could be used?

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  6. Your ideas are awesome :) thanks for sharing, I'm doing VBS with this theme with 4 and 5 year olds. We always try to incorporate some kind of food craft and regular craft, any suggestions???

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  7. Our church will also be using this VBS. I'm in charge of crafts, and I'd love to know if you have a pattern or instructions for the helmet. I don't have a Silhouette, so I"ll just be making do with scissors. :)

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  8. This is so amazing. I wish there was a PDF of instructions and pictures that one can download and print.

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  9. This is awesome!! We homeschool and are just getting ready to do a study on the Armor of God! These crafts are amazing!! Thanks for sharing! I agree that a PDF of instructions and maybe even patterns would be wonderful!

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  10. Hello! This looks great! Could you make a booklet on how to make all of these?

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  11. Great crafts. We're actually do this theme this year for VBS and I loved looking at what you did. Did you have a template for the helmets?

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    Replies
    1. I don't have the template unfortunately. A friend of mine designed them but she nor I no longer have the template to it. I'm sorry!

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  12. Hi, I was put in charge for VBS crafts this summer, and now that I see your crafts I am positive that I will be using some of your crafts and whether or not I have a Silhouette machine, I know I can come up with some of this items.As for the helmet I figure that just looking at the picture will help he create one. can you send a picture of the back of it? Great ideas, my panic has subsided. I am anxious to begin doing this crafts and see how long they will take to make and show pastor what they look like. Thanks so much.

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  13. Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and photos for this theme. You have just made my task of planning our church's first VBS so much easier! God bless you.

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  20. My church is doing a new Curriculum as of this month, and the first unit is entitled "Armor of God". How did you do the Helmet of Salvation for a craft? Is there a template that you used?

    email me at john.fitzsimons@hopevale.org, as this would be VERY fast way of communicating for me.

    Thank you and God Bless!

    John Fitzsimons

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  21. My church is doing the VBS this summer for the first time. using the "Armor of God" curriculum. Also interested in "cool paper helmets" can you pls. provide with directions or instructions on how to do. Or you can email them to me at mayradelvalle71@gmail.com. Thank you. God bless

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  22. Yes, please! Please share the template or how-to on those cool paper helmets- we would love to make them for VBS next week. Thanks!
    :)

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    Replies
    1. You'll probably need my email, eh?! Contact me at christine@wardroadbaptist.org with instructions or template, please. Thanks.... again :)

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  23. HI! I am wondering about mod-podging the bible verse on the canvas to form the breastplate: can you tell us how she created the graphic, was it then printed on paper, what type of paper? Thanks, my Wed. night class (grades 2-5) are studying the Armor of God and I thought this would be a great way to end our study! Also planning to make the bookmarks.

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  24. Would really like to see a template for the helmet. Loved the article It is our plan to do Armour of God for our vbs with a military theme this year. Thanks

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  25. What did your invitations/flyers/registration forms look like? Is this something you would email me that I can customize? LoriBennett76@gmail.com

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    Replies
    1. Hello,what did u use to hold ur salvation helmet together?

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  26. Hello I have been using your free lesson material in my Sunday School class- small church so I have all 1st -6th grade in one class!But your lesson materials has made teaching such a blessing to me. I am doing lesson 2 this week of The Armor Of God and I love the easy but fun craft ideas that you have shared here!! Thanks so much for all that you do!!!! I just can't say enough good things about this web-site!!!!

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