VBS 2018! This year my church decided to go with a superhero theme. This created a fun time for the decorating team. Everything we did was… super! Go us! We designed our main set with a very simple look that let the superheroes be the center of attention. The main stage in the sanctuary was made up of simple building silhouettes cut from black corrugated plastic. Window holes were cut out and filled with tissue paper then lit from behind with a few well-placed LED mini spotlights. We added a comic book store off to the side as a skit set for our VBS actors to use and teach their lessons from. There were a few extra personal touches that I felt really made the set: a cardboard cutout of The Statue of Liberty, a moon hanging in the distance (painted paper secured in an embroidery hoop), and a bridge made of PVC pipes and rope lights.
The side walls in the sanctuary were simple as well. We lined the walls with royal blue paper, then layered black paper on the top that was pre-cut with a New York City skyline. It looked good, just a simple skyline to set the mood, although somebody had too much fun and added a recognizable superhero building…
In the main foyer/ sanctuary entrance, we had a bit of fun by putting up a mix of superhero-related décor. To start with, since our church’s front doors are glass, I always like to think of them as part of the décor opportunity and I always try to decorate the doors if possible. This year, we added vinyl logos to the glass to look like the entrance of a newspaper building. The pattern for the logo was inspired by the Daily Planet since I am a huge Superman fan.
One of our church members built us a newsstand to use as a registration stand. Clothespins glued to the front of the stand served to hold up our newspapers and comic book covers. One of our talented team members’ drew up some superheroes to put on the front of the comic book covers. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good shot of it while it was being used for registration, so in this picture, we moved it out of the way and folded the flaps back.
I decided to create a phone booth out of a refrigerator box because what kind of superhero theme denies its people the fun of a phone booth to change into their alter-ego? In another burst of cardboard inspiration, one of my team members constructed a photo op booth from a leftover set piece from last year and combined with a comic book photo frame purchased from Oriental Trading. Voila! Photo op booth for kids!
Chains of red, blue, and yellow draped from the ceiling as well as tissue paper puffs and fans added character. One of our team members actually put together a series of planned photographs to create an open “comic book” to hang on the wall.
I whipped up a few pages of badges for the staff. Cheaper than personalized t-shirts!
The snack room was my favorite. Since a lot of important superhero events happen in the rougher part of the neighborhood, we went with a back alley look. To achieve this, we stapled brown Kraft paper to the walls and “painted” brick by using a grout sponge cut to the size of a brick, dipped in paint and pressed to the wall in a brick pattern. Fortunately, some of my team members have a talent for keeping these kinds of things straight. When I attempt to paint bricks, they usually start to slant off to one side or the other. Fortunately, the church didn’t have to suffer from my bricking job! Once the room was completely “bricked” several of our church’s youth came by and spent the evening painting some of the godliest graffiti I’ve ever seen! “Boaz ♥ Ruth” “Saved by Grace” “Unstoppable God”… Graffiti that encourages and edifies. That’s new!
As we do yearly, after VBS week, we have a children’s revival on the following Sunday, which of course calls for candy.
Here are few downloads for some of our projects:
Super Staff badges template (Avery 5263) Download
Building Graphs Download