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!
- 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
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...
