I've been in the Bayou (actually Crocodile Dock)

I've been away from my blog for so long. I'm sure some of you thought I'd fallen off the planet. Well, I've immersed myself in the Bayou. I've been preparing our decorations and set for our Vacation Bible School at my church. I do this every year and every year I tell myself I'm going to be more organized and get more done with little effort but it never really works out that way.

I have been busy for the last three weeks shopping for supplies, coordinating work days, organizing the projects and working day and night to transform our church into a Bayou for our 2009 VBS theme of "Crocodile Dock."

It's amazing what you can make out of the large sheets of foam insulation. We needed 13 4' x 8' sheets of the thick foam. Using an amazing tool -- the Hot Knife -- I was able to cut, mold and shape the form into a rundown shack, dock and backdrop.

Here are two of my helpers, Libby and Susan, working on the shack. We needed to make it look old and moldy. I think it looks pretty good.


I always seem to volunteer my husband for these projects. Here he is using my "hot knife" to make the foam look like a wooden dock.


With a little paint it looks like real wood!!!


Next came the 12 foot cypress tree. My helpers here are Libby's and Susan's husbands, Alex and Joe. It was a TALL job but they were having a fun time.


Once we had the PVC pipe and chicken wire frame made for the tree, we covered it with twisted brown kraft wrapping paper. It was starting to look like a tree!


Here is the finished tree. It's amazing what you can do with PVC pipe, chicken wire, brown paper and a few fake plants. The moss was made dipping cheesecloth in watered down green paint.


Here is the finished shack and dock. We added lanterns out of Gatorade bottles and put battery-operated tea lights in them. The pylons are made of carpet tubes and Sono tubes that we cut, painted and tied together.


Here is the entire set. I think it looks great. It's so amazing how all this starts out with some foam sheets and paint and turns into a realistic Bayou for our "Crocodile Dock."


Now add the children and you have a fun Vacation Bible School. We had approximately 85 kids attend this year. It runs all week - Sunday through Friday from 6-8:30 p.m. There's lots of music, crafts, snacks and Bible stories.


My 4-year old granddaughter, Guinevere, (in the pink dress) had a great time. This was her first year and she just loved to dance to the special VBS songs.


With two weeks of preparing the props and decorations and then the week of VBS every night, I was exhausted by Friday night! It took me the rest of the weekend to recuperate. Now I can finally get back to stamping!!

Check back tomorrow for pictures of cards I made for my monthly Stampa-a-Stack.