When VBS is Over

Many of you have already had your VBS. We hope it was spectacular! Did you take lots of pictures? Maybe you have pictures of your kids proudly holding their crafts or playing a crazy game. Of course you have the precious photos of everyone gathered together praising our Lord! But what should you do with all of your pictures? An all-church slideshow, perhaps. But what about all the VBS memorabilia…the leader guides, the registration cards, posters, etc.? It would be heartbreaking to throw it all away, yet you don’t want it to just collect dust.

Make a VBS scrapbook!

“I’m not a scrapbooker,” you say. 

Well, anyone can make a scrapbook! (Plus, it’s such a popular thing to do these days…you’ll probably find many people in your church who would like to help!) With your VBS memories and some help from your kids, you have all the inspiration you need right at your fingertips! Use this idea for your VBS follow-up. Invite your kids back to sing songs from VBS and help put together a VBS scrapbook.

What to save:

• Flyers, posters, bulletin inserts, ads (any promotional material)
• Teaching visuals
• Tickets, registration cards, raffle tickets
• Two-dimensional crafts
• Stickers
• Fundraising materials
• Leader’s Guides
• Activity Sheets
• Anything else related to your VBS that will fit into your scrapbook!

Supplies you’ll need:

• Colored cardstock
• Scissors
• Glue sticks
• Patterned scrapbook paper (optional)
• Scrapbook(s) (see size options below)
• Page protectors (see below)
• Stencils (optional)
• Colored markers/pens
• Stickers

Make sure your supplies, such as paper and glue, are acid-free. Most come acid-free these days…this will ensure that it doesn’t ruin your photos! (Construction paper is not acid-free.)

Class Scrapbook

If you are making one scrapbook, we recommend a 12” x 12” scrapbook with plastic sheet protectors (available at your local craft store or we love Close to my Heart's albums available here). The bigger size makes it easier for you to fit more memorabilia on each page, especially since a lot of your items are bigger than a normal 8.5” x 11” page. And the sheet protectors are good since many items will not be completely flat. Some sheet protectors already come with white paper, so you can add them to your supplies.

Mini Books for Each Child

If you have each child make his own scrapbook, you may want to give him a smaller book. Mini-books are popular...you can give each child a few small (6" x 6" or so) sheets of chipboard to decorate and add pictures, then hold them together with ring clasps. If your budget is tight you can have the children provide their own chipboard pieces or small books/journals to decorate. You may still want to use a 12” x 12” book for your class scrapbook.

Oversize Items

If you have posters and other memorabilia that are too big for your book, cut them to use as your background paper. Cut the covers off your leader’s guides to add to your scrapbook, along with any inside pages you want to keep. You can also use them as background paper if you’d like. If you’re making one book, let your kids help by making borders, adding their crafts and stickers, and gluing photos. Cut out fun pictures from your teaching materials to help decorate. Use anything you have saved that has to do with your VBS!

Add Photo Borders

If you add a solid-colored frame around your photos it makes them really stand out. Glue your photo to a piece of cardstock, leaving some room around the edges. Cut around the picture, leaving a border (fancy-edged scissors add a fun effect). You may especially want to use this technique if you are gluing pictures on top of a patterned background so the solid border makes the photos pop!

Most importantly, HAVE FUN!

Here are some stickers for the various VBS 2012 themes that may help you decorate your scrapbooks...