Decorating Guide

Simple and affordable tips to zoom back in time and step into the Bible!

Welcome every child with a fun and bright registration area!

•The big welcome sign is included in the Decorating Resource Pack. See the Decorating Guide booklet for tips on how to mount sheets on foam board.

•Cut out circular or gear shapes from brightly colored poster board. We’re going back in time, so anything related to clocks, clock gears, or swirling time travel tunnels would be great for an added touch!

•You’ll notice the main colors used in our Bible Blast to the Past kit are ultra-bright and ultra-fun: purple, blue, and green, with bright pink and orange along for the ride. Lots of colors to work with!

Registration

Set the scene right from the start by creating a fantastic entryway for all your VBS participants to travel through!

The Portal• Work in layers

• Drape lines of mini-lights or rope lights from ceilings and walls using adhesive hooks (e.g. Command strips) that won’t mar walls.

• Suggestion: place rope lighting on the floor to create a path. Then cover the lighting lines with a tarp to help avoid tripping kids up. (We used a bright green tarp, which also reflected green light onto the walls.)

• Drape layers of light fabric (we used tobacco cloth, or row cover—found at garden centers or on Amazon.com) from ceiling and walls using tape or adhesive hooks. Be sure to cover up all the lines of lights.

• The light cubes are made of furnace filters taped together with duct tape and lit from behind.

The Portal• As travelers exit the portal tunnel,

they go through this colorful vortex. These panels are provided on sheets in the Decorating Resource Pack. We mounted ours on foam board and hung them from the tops of our double doors.

• The vortex could also be used as a photo backdrop or as a window decoration.

• Don’t forget to play the time-travel sound effects provided on the Decorating & Publicity CD in your kit. This will add to the intrigue as kids travel through the portal tunnel.

• Don’t have a good space to use for creating a tunnel? Many other ideas for portal construction are in the Decorating Guide booklet.

The Stage• Your time travelers will start to feel right at home in Bible times as they worship, learn, and play

together in the Blast to the Past Bash. The focal point of the main stage are these 5 panels depicting a Bible-times landscape and featuring spaces for highlighting each day’s ancient artifact symbol that will remind children about the story of God’s love they heard that day.

• We mounted these 5 sheets (included in the Decorating Resource Pack) on foam board and then suspended them from a ceiling structure using fishing line, but there are many ways to set them up. We chose a simple black background, covering the back wall of the stage area with black weed barrier cloth (found at garden centers or online), which is inexpensive, light, and easy to work with.

The Stage• The beautiful

Bible Timeline Wall Mural shows kids they can also have a place in history as servants of God.

• Kids can add their Serving Hands (shown here after the kids wrote on them; sold in packs of 50) to show completed acts of service or to mark fund-raising goals.

• The timeline can also be used as a feature of the Service & Missions site.

• The three 36” x 72” sheets can be hung together or separately.

The Stage• Add the dynamic word bursts that feature the 5 word

messages for each day of VBS, some Bible animal character stand-ups (see tips on creating stand-alone cutouts in the printed guide), and a bunch of willing volunteers, and your Bash will be all set for everyone to learn about God’s everlasting love—His INCREDIBLE, FAITHFUL, INVINCIBLE, UNCONDITIONAL, and REAL love!

Bible Story Time• Children of all ages will love settling inside this Middle

Eastern style tent to listen and interact with the Bible stories for each day. The Bible Stories Leader’s Guide gives simple ideas to let kids experience herding sheep like Moses, fighting giants like David, and much more!

• The Timeless Truth Tent sign, along with all the site signs, is included in the Site Names Poster Pack.

• Light-colored sheets and fabric can be draped over a canopy frame or a tent to create the feeling of an open Middle Eastern tent.

• Furnish the tent with fabric-covered coffee tables or benches. Add lots of comfy pillows, colorful rugs, real or fake palm plants, baskets, and crockery to complete the look.

Crafts & Science• The NEW Crafts & Science site at Discovery Ruins is a

place where every explorer can experiment and create.

• Create the feeling of an ancient ruins with a few simple columns and a painted backdrop. The columns were made out of foam and painted with gray streaks to create a marble effect. Columns could also be created out of rolls of white paper or poster board and cardboard squares (for the tops and bottoms).

• Stone walls and window frames were painted with black paint on simple parcel paper or brown kraft paper (available at office supply stores). White highlights and shading help to make the walls look more realistic.

• Twisted brown paper vines draped around the columns and hanging from the ceiling add to the ancient and forgotten feeling of the place.

Snacks & Games• A Middle Eastern marketplace environment is

easy to create for Backtrack Bazaar!

• We started with a classroom table and covered it in layers of fabric, blanket throws, and towels that had colorful patterns.

• Then we added a variety of sizes of natural-colored baskets, some fake food (although you could use real fruit, bread, and veggies), pottery, yarn, and rolls of fabric.

• The great thing about this setup is it can be used inside or out. Kids can bring their snacks outside and eat on blankets or at picnic tables, and then move on to lively group games!

• Check out the Decorating Guide and the Snacks & Games Leader’s Cards for ideas for a Bazaar Shade Café and lots more!

Service & Missions• What could be a better addition to your VBS than a spot

where kids can focus on serving others?

• We created our Mission Quest Cave site with two main ingredients: brown kraft paper and duct tape! Our cave creators first rolled out large sheets of brown paper, and then had some fun crumpling them up.

• Before hanging these paper sheets up, we used brown and white chalk to create ridges and lines and shadows on the paper.

• We hung the sheets from a twine line using duct tape to fasten the sheets. For our cave, we just chose a corner of a room, but you could also use existing shelves or other furniture in your room to help you form your cave. Or use a tent or tent frame as your base!

• Cut out an opening in your paper sheets and crumple the paper around the edges of your entrance to make it look more realistic.

• We added some painted foam “rocks” and our donkey stand-ups. But you could also add brown “rock” pillows to make a comfy space.

Create a Missions Wall!• One feature of your Mission Quest Cave site could be a

Missions Wall. Use the Bible Timeline Wall Mural (mentioned earlier) as a focal point, where kids can add their Serving Hands to mark fund-raising or serving goals.

• Place posters from the Service & Missions Poster Pack around the mural to inspire kids to think about some of the people all around the world that they can help.

• If there is a specific mission you are supporting, this is a great place to display maps, country flags, pictures, or other items that will help kids imagine what it’s like to live in that place and nurture their compassion for others.

Preschoolers• Don’t forget about your youngest time travelers! We

zoom them back to the simple life of a Judean pastureland at Playtime Pasture.

• Use the Playtime Pasture poster, cutouts of the cute lambs (and Cooper!), and the flowers, bugs and other decorations from the Decorating Resource Pack or from the Decorating & Publicity CD to brighten up any classroom. Check out the Decorating Guide for ideas on creating rolling hills, streams, and other pasture places.

• A large room that has space for your little lambs to run around and also areas to set up Learning Centers is perfect for the preschoolers. Check out the Bible Stories Leader’s Guide for preschool for more info on the centers.

• Be sure to use the Bible Story Poster Pack for the preschool room too, to help preschoolers get into the Bible stories. (The picket fence in this room was already part of the church’s decorations, so we just left it. It’s not exactly from Bible times, but it is fun!)

Unwind Sensory Time• This special site acts as a quiet oasis for kids with special needs or for anyone who could use a

break from the exciting environment of VBS.

• Check out the Decorating Guide for specific, practical ideas about how to help kids unwind though the use of texture, movement, visual helps, and sound.

• Designate a space with the Unwind Sensory Time logo (available on the Decorating & Publicity CD).

• Include the Bible Story Poster Pack and the Daily Theme Poster Pack here to reinforce the stories and messages the kids are hearing throughout the day.

• Tips for including and engaging special learners are included throughout the Bible Blast to the Past materials. In particular, check out the Special Needs section in the Director’s Guide and on all of discs in the Age-Level Resources Disc Set.

Pre and Post VBS!• Create a photo op perfect for a VBS launch

event or during VBS. Use the Giant Time Travel Clock to create a photo booth for kids registering for VBS. Then customize each kid’s PastPort with his or her own time traveler photo.

• Make a lasting impact on your church by hanging up the Make Your Mark Wall Banner (use adhesives that won’t mark up the walls, e.g. Command poster mounting strips). Kids will write on the banner during VBS to tell how they’ve experienced God’s INCREDIBLE, FAITHFUL, INVINCIBLE, UNCONDITIONAL, and REAL love. Then leave the banner up for weeks after your program to show the whole church how VBS changes kids’ lives!

Like God’s love, the ideas don’t stop!

Check out all of these resources for more ideas on decorating, lighting, sound effects and so much more!

• Visit the Bible Blast to the Past website at www.vacationbibleschool.com.

•Check out the Bible Blast to the Past catalog (available for download on the website) for all your decorating resources.

• Besides the Decorating Resource Pack with the Decorating Guide included in it, be sure to look at the Decorating & Publicity CD (part of the Planning & Missions Disc Set), which includes logos, clip art, sound effects, and promotional aids.

• Visit our Facebook page to see what other VBS leaders are doing. Like us at StandardPublishingVBS so you don’t miss any tips or deals!

• Tons more can be found at our Pinterest page. Find us at www.pinterest.com/standardpubvbs/bible-blast-to-the-past/.