Love ROCKS, Bubble Magnets

I am working on making samples for our VBS Program, Blast to the Past.  This is one of the projects that we will be doing in Mission Quest Cave.

I found a great tutorial on Craft Supplies for Less.

You will need domed, flat backed glass Cabochon beads, Diamond Glaze, E6000 Adhesive, round magnets, pictures, scrapbook paper, stickers.  I do have to say I had a very hard time finding the Diamond Glaze.  I finally just bought it on Amazon.

I ordered my glass beads on Amazon since I didn't need to many right now.

Rockin Beads Brand, 48 Clear Glass Dome Tile Cabochon Clear 25mm 1 Inch Non-calibrated Round

40 CleverDelights Square Glass Tiles - 1 Inch - Clear Tiles - Glass Cabochons - For Photo Pendants Mosaics Trays - 1" 25mm Tiles - 4mm Thick

Since my beads were 1 inch, I used a 1 inch circle punch and cut out some pretty scrapbook paper and some plain paper.  I added some stickers and left some plain.

I also found two old pictures of my son and punched them out. I also used a cute picture of Miss V and punched that out.

Once all your paper backing is decorated, use a small amount of Diamond Glaze right on the picture/paper then gently place the bead on top.  Now....warning the Diamond Glaze says not to shake it will cause bubbles.  I didn't shake my bottle, but had to deal with bubbles.  It is suggested that you run the tip of the bottle through the bubble.  That didn't work for me so I used a pin.

When dry use a bit of the E6000 adhesive and dab it on the magnet.  Place the bead, flat side down right onto the adhesive.  Let dry....

Good thing I made the samples...I have learned that the picture I used of Miss V was printed on my inkjet years ago and the Diamond Glaze totally distorted it after a few minutes. The pictures of my son that were printed at Walgreens/CVS/Ritz Camera came out perfect.  The scrapbook paper ones look fabulous too!

Oh and I used some pretty glass beads to make some more.  I have a very big and heavy bin of glass beads thanks to Father Cal and Miss Sandy at church.

One other think I have learned is, watch out for the magnet strength!  Wowzers, I bought the ones at Hobby Lobby and they are STRONG!!!!

So what I have come up with is that the kids will get to decorate some paper ones and if they want they can pick out some glass baubles too.  Since the Diamond Glaze is tricky and I am not comfortable with kids using the E6000, I think it will be best if the kids put their items in a ziplock with their name and after VBS is done for the morning a few of us will stay after get some pizza or lunch and assemble the kids magnets and send them home the next day.

Simple three strand yarn Friendship Bracelet

Since I am still worried about my younger groups or children that have motor skill issues, I have a couple skeins of yarn.

Supplies:
3 colors of yarn, cut to 40 inches
tape or clip boards

Fold the yarn in half and make a loop like in the Fishtail bracelets.  Separate the strands into like colors.  I used white, yellow and purple.  So both strands of the same color are together.  Then clip the loop to the clipboard.  You will need a little bit of tension for this one.

Bring the left hand strand over the middle strand to the center.

Then bring the right hand strand over the new middle strand to the center.  Repeat until you get your desired length.  Make a simple knot at the end.  I then made two sections of yarn and braided them and knotted them at the end so they can be tied together at the top loop.

This version took me maybe 5 minutes tops!  I definitely think my younger kids could do this pretty easily.  Plus they could have time left over to make more for their family and friends.

Fishtail Friendship Bracelets

Part of our VBS Program, Blast to the Past is to make friendship bracelets.  I must have missed how to make them when I was a kid.  I took out a couple books from the library.  Reading through them actually made my  heart race.  The kids have approximately 20 - 25 minutes per class and these look so complicated.   Plus our age range is from kids going into Kindergarten through 8th grade.  There is no way a little 5 year old would be able to understand how to make these kinds of knots and patterns.

I have seriously been stressing about this for weeks!  I have been searching high and low on Pinterest when finally a Fishtail style came up.  I have been bringing my bag of yarn, embroidery floss, tools, measuring tape, clipboard to so many places so I could force myself to do them.

Well finally Wednesday I brought it to church since Miss V has tutoring and we didn't have Alpha.  So while she was in the classroom, I pulled up the pin and combined it with some stuff from one of the books.

Supplies needed:

5+ different colors of embroidery floss (cut to 40 inches)

scissors

tape or binder clip (something to hold it in place while you work on it)

Fold the group of floss in half and make a loop at the top.

Then sort out the colors dividing them into two sides.

So each side had two strands of yellow, two strands of purple and one strand of white.

Attach the loop under the metal part of the clipboard, or you may tape it to a table.  I used my clipboard.

Start with the far left strand and cross over one strand to the right side.  Then take the far right strand and and cross it over to the left side.

Keep going until you reach your desired length.  What I noticed was that it was a bit loose, so every few times, I would take the left side strands and pull them a bit tighter and do the same with the right side.

Then make a knot at the end. I then just braided the end and you can knot the end to the loop.

It was hard getting a close up, the lighting wherever I went just wouldn't work.  These just happen to be Miss V's school colors.

I finished that one in about 35 minutes and decided to make one with the VBS colors.

The second one went much faster and I love all the bright colors.  I also knotted it at the end and separated the strands into two and braided them and made small knots at the end so you can easily knot them through the loop.

Survival Kit for First Responders

Here is one of the projects for Mission Quest Cave.  This is part of our VBS called Blast to the Past.  I found the idea on Pinterest, but it was just for police.  So I tweaked it a bit to include all first responders ie:  Fire Department, Sheriff's Department and Police.

The kids will be able to decorate brown paper bags with stickers then add the "supplies" listed above and attach this little poem.

How easy and cute is that?  I will start asking around to local friends if they personally know someone from each department that would like to come collect these at our daily closing.  Then they can hand them out at their stations.