VBSing done

We finished our week at VBS strong.   In my last post, I wasn't sure how the t-shirts would wash.  After some Internet research, I heat set my children's t-shirts from Day 2 before washing them.  The Staz-On did not bleed at all.  A couple of the blue/green sharpie colors ran slightly.  If I ever do any more T-shirts with ink, I will plan to tell the parents to heat set the shirts prior to washing.   The Staz-On also says it is not recommended for fabric.   I searched for the reason.   A post on a message board said according to Tsukineko it was due to the solvent ink.   It may deteriorate the fabric over time.

For the t-shirt project, I wanted to do something a bit different than what I kept seeing.   I saw, "I *heart* VBS everywhere.   While I do love VBS, I wanted to send a different message.   I truly *heart* Jesus.   I decided to put that on the shirts.   I needed 8-9 stamp sets with those characters.   After looking around, I decided to make my own.   I used foam alphabet letters for the I.  I stuck two letters together to build it them up a bit.  The next challenge was to make a block for it.  I wanted to be able to see through it, so the children could see which was they were stamping.  I brainstormed and looked for weeks.   One day in Michaels, I happened on these:

 I took them apart, took the pin out and attached the foam letter with foam tape.  I used both the front and back pieces for my stamps.  I needed handles and found large foam marshmallows in our resource room at church.   I used e6000 to glue the handles to the plastic name badge parts.  I repeated the process with foam hearts for my second stamp.   Finding the word Jesus was a bit harder.   At Hobby Lobby, I came upon the word Jesus.  It was a wood cut out in located their seasonal VBS section.  I bought three packages so I would have nine pieces and kept looking.  I never found anything else.  I considered ordering a Jesus die for the die cut machine at church.  To make my Jesus stamp, I attached craft foam to the back side of the wood cut out and used an Exacto to cut out all the nooks and crannies.  Then, I used foam tape to attach the front side of the cut out to wood blocks.  This way the word would be reversed and stamp correctly,   My husband cut the wood, routed the edges of the blocks, and then cut them to size.   Here are my finished products:

On Thursday, the children studied the story of the woman at the well with Jesus.  I used the literature suggestion for a reminder well.   Instead of using vegetable cans we used Crystal Light containers.  I also made the stamps for this project.  I cut sponges to look like bricks and then added small foam marshmallows as handles.   I found the marshmallows at Michael's.  That was a nice addition to the project because it kept the children's hands out of the the ink.   You can see them in the below picture if you squint.  There is a green and white object in the front left of the picture.  That is the brick stamp.  Here is the room prior to the first rotation of kids:

I used plastic sheeting on the floor to protect the carpet.   It was essentially plastic garbage bag material.   I used rolled plastic on the tables.   That was nice because it could be rolled up, thrown away and replaced easily.    

On Friday we made Jesus buddies.   It was a variation on the literature suggestion.   When my daughter was four, she was sure Jesus had purple hair because she loved purple and loved Jesus.   I told the kids to make their buddy look however they would like it to look.   Some kids made themselves, some made Jesus, and some just did their own thing.   I loved the creativity.   The kids really enjoyed the craft.   They worked really hard on them.   Here are a few:

I used precut tag board shapes I bought at Michaels.  We decorated with wiggly eyes, yarn for hair, jute cord, scrap fabric, and  heart sticker for a mouth.   

Each project we made had the scripture of the day on it.  I either used computer generated labels or we, the volunteers, wrote the scripture on them.  Each day after the children completed the first activity, I had a second activity.  This kept my early finishers busy.   I did a different project a day and repeated the watercoloring on Friday.  My activities included: watercoloring a picture for a child in Africa, license plate rubbings, gluing magazine pictures to premade box buildings, and drawing with sidewalk chalk on black paper.   

I had a blast doing VBS this year.   I had great volunteers with beautiful hearts.   I prayed through the projects and the Lord gave me some great ideas.   I prayed for help seeing potential problems and He brought them to my mind or my volunteers mind.  I covered the entire thing in prayer and the Lord blessed it.   Now pray for the seeds that were planted in preschool hearts.     I did *heart* VBS, but I *heart* Jesus more!