Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."   Matt. 19:14

             Odyssey In Outer Space - Crafts


    Most of our crafts for the younger groups are purchased from Oriental Trading, the local dollar store and/or the local craft chain stores.   Michaels, A.C.Moore and JoAnn Fabrics are the craft stores in our area and have all been of use to us.    Each one of them can have inexpensive group craft packs that go with our VBS themes.   Many times the pieces are prepped and ready for assembly, making it very easy on the craft leader.   I know we are not like the big VBS package deals where all your crafts come in the box, but I believe there is much to be said for encouraging the church to work together in a project like this, using each and everyone’s talents.   Often the individual leaders enjoy being able to make decisions and do crafts that they think the children will enjoy doing (or whatever their station is).   We have also done crafts from craft idea books.   This requires more prep work, but if the leader really wants to do a unique craft, they can prep or get help to prep the crafts for the children.  For example, we found this cute paper horse made with a lunch bag, paint stick and wiggle eyes for our Western theme in a craft book.   The local hardware store gave us all the paints sticks we needed.   A package of lunch bags was found at the dollar store and all we needed was glue and wiggle eyes.   Our craft people had to do some prep, but the kids loved them and we decorated the hall with some of them.

    For the oldest groups, we have done a week long “real” craft.   The boys have done wood burning projects, airplanes, etc while the girls have done lamps, cool frames, and decorated candles for their rooms.