Kingdom Rock

I took a break last year from heading up decorations for my church's VBS, but this year was ready to step back into the role. The theme this year — Kingdom Rock. All castles and knights. Super fun. Here are just some of our decorations!

My construction partner-in-crime, Ted, built me the drawbridge. I gave him the plans, and he gave me a bridge. The towers have flags made by the church sewing guru, Marlaine. The towers have sconces with battery-operated torches; they blow air that makes the "flame" flutter (and they have lights that make them glow like fire). 

The knight costume is one I found online (He's not even wearing all the parts!! We were in a rush to get him into gear for greeting congregants as they came into church on Sunday and so his gray pants, shoe covers and thigh pieces aren't on). The welcoming fanfare included lots of bubble machines. Two little girls dressed as princesses. And one cutie who does Irish dancing danced to Irish music. Priceless.

The president of my company is sweet enough to let me 

use our large output printer for many church projects. 

Here is a carnival cut-out for taking pictures. The kids love it.

The front doors of the church got dressed up in shields. 

And Dollar Tree swords, embellished with foam core crosses painted gold, look regal.

With no water to replicate a moat, one church member (who works part-time at Trader Joe's and does their chalkboard signs) took chalk and made a river with gators.

Inside the sanctuary we went large-scale, creating wall panels with cut-out alcoves. 

Thanks to David for these!

Lots of fabric banners adorned the church.

I purchased posters of the Kingdom Rock animals, mounted them to foam core, then cut each animal out, liking the look of them freestanding rather than as giant rectangular posters.

I needed to salvage their name banners, so I cut those out individually, mounted them to foam core, glued each to a wooden skewer, then pushed the banner into the foam of each animal.

Marlaine had a ton of big tassels which she spray-painted gold. 

And her banners were colorful and adorned with gold royal shapes. 

I had a small version of the carnival cut-out which I framed and made a museum-like label for.

Above it hangs a Dollar Tree breastplate, and below that hangs a plastic dollar store chain.

We used lots of ideas from Pinterest. 

With duct tape we made metal-looking grills above doorways.

And I came to the installation day with one project that I'd not completed, threw it out there at the last minute, and my volunteers jumped at the chance to craft it. 

Voila . . . one of my favorite decorations — the cardboard chandelier.

The flames are made of cardboard and pipe cleaners.

And it's hung with jute cord.