Babylon Decor - Inspiration Pictures

Here are some Babylon decor pictures people from various churches have let me share here.  You can click on any of these to view larger.


The Ishtar Gate backdrop below was printed and then mounted on a backing.   You can buy the files to print these yourself (needs a wide-format printer).

Picture of backdrop by ProphecyArt.com

The same church is doing Babylon again this year, but used the backdrop differently, putting the gate at the entrance of their sanctuary and some of the panels inside to create the palace.

Printed backdrop by ProphecyArt.com

This next church made a white building with blue details...

Here is the drawings for the plans for the stage above. 

 

(If this is your church and you want credit, please leave a comment and let me know.  I got permission from the person who shared on facebook to use this but I lost her info and don't know how this should have been credited). 

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"Hanging Garden" photo by BabylonCynthia Heredia De Martínez 

from St.  Francis of Assisi in Frisco, TX

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The following photos of the Babylon VBS at BLC in 2012. You can find more pictures from this VBS, including construction shots, here.   They were shared under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) by Flickr user "Boynton."

More Babylon Decor Ideas

Babylon Crafts, Food and More

The Lion Den

Below is an amazing lion den created by Garden Ridge Church of Christ.   At the end is a video explaining how they did it.

More Babylon Decor Ideas

Babylon Crafts, Food and More

 

 

 

 

What To Do With Stacked Chairs

We have a bunch of chairs we usually stack in the corners of our marketplace during VBS, just to get them out of the way.   When we did Rome we found a creative way to hide the stacked chairs under sheets, turning them into scenery.   (You can often get donations of old white sheets from hotels).

When we had an Egypt themed VBS, we found another way to use our "chairs."   We made "houses" out of them, and used these for our "Tribe Time" (which I believe was called "Family Group Time" that year). 

I liked how a colored piece of cloth looked like a lintel over the doorway (pictured above). A tribe sign also decorated each house.

Inside we made less effort to cover up the chairs (ran out of sheets).  We decorated with blankets and pillows for the kids to sit on, and various other knick knacks our tribe leaders brought.   Each tribe got a camp-fire for their room...something left over from the previous Wilderness VBS.

 

While they didn't look perfectly like houses, the outside was still a lot nicer to look at than stacked chairs.   

You can see two of our rooms in the corner of this picture...they looked nice with the marketplace tents.  We had four in total, one in each corner.   Having these rooms right in the marketplace made for less traveling (there was also two Sunday school rooms used, right outside our marketplace...but we didn't have to use rooms in our other building, which is a further walk). 

HOW TO MAKE CARPET TUBE TENT/BOOTH

The following booths using carpet tubes and boards were designed by Rod Moyer at Calvary Baptist Church, Reading, PA. They are  inexpensive, since you can usually get carpet tubes for free from carpet shops/suppliers. 

Each booth was designed to be 10' long by 8' wide. It is higher in the back than the front, it will give the illusion of a peaked tent or roof.   The back columns are 7', the second set at 6'6,"the third at 6' and the opening columns at 5'5" tall. The four columns on each side were set into a lath frame, with screws inserted into both sides for stability. An 8' lath strip at the back holds the two sides in place.  You can see how the carpet tubes fit into the boards in the pictures above and below. 

To anchor the tops of each side, carpet tubes were split in half lengthwise and fastened that at the top of each column. Then the additional halved carpet tubes were he's notched out to use as trusses/crosspieces.

Below is a close up showing how the roofing fits together. Of course, the roofing is on longer tubes...I believe this was just an example/trial piece.

Below you can see it put together and draped with sheets.

(More decorative draping was added later). 

And here we see the tents with decorative draping.

Make a Foam or Cardboard Block Wall

Photo by Rebecca Johnson

If you are looking for a more stone cut/brick wall, you can make one using painted foam blocks (like above) or cardboard boxes. I've even seen a castle wall using pizza boxes here, and you can see a great method for making an arch with boxes or blocks here.

At our church we also created blocks like this using sandwhich bags for a "God Sightings" wall one year.  You can stuff one bag with paper, then slip that one into another sandwhich bag facing in the opposite direction to make the "brick.". These aren't very sturdy, but could be glued to a cardboard backing for more stability.

One cool feature of this type of wall (not reinforced) is that if you need to have someone break through a wall, you can (and then just put the pieces back for next time).

See All Rock Wall Ideas Here

Painting/Drawing a Brick or Stone Wall - Various Methods

Below you'll find a variety of methods for painting or drawing brick and stone walls.

Hand painted arch on foam board.

Picture by Kelly Moreland

Hand Painted Wall
Don't be intimidated against painting a wall by hand.    Take the  wall above...it looks amazing and a lot of time went into it for sure.  BUT, take a closer look.  This wall is doable!  The larger bricks aren't drawn with perfect lines...and they are better for it (because real stonework from that period might often be a little imperfect).  The larger stones are not done with technically challenging shading but with a blotchy loose texture that allows some of the white underneath to show through.  The solid painted stones around the arch pop against the textured larger stones. 

At another church they did these simple cardboard "stones" using the brown of the cardboard and just a little bit of paint details...

But if hand-painting still makes you nervous, there's some extra tricks you can employ below....


Sponge Painted Wall

Picture by Becky Burns

A simple way to create a brick rock wall is to paint bricks using sponges and  paint.   The sponge creates the grainy texture of bricks.

One benefit to this is that even children can help with this type of wall (and probably would have fun doing it). Also, sponge painting can be done on nearly any material, including cloth (like the picture at right). And if painted on cloth your "wall" can easily be rolled up and stored for later use.

While it's less three dimensional than some other methods, it's simple and effective.

The picture to the right was graciously provided by The Nelson's Blog.


Stenciled Wall Painting
You can also use stencils and spray paint to help create your brick or stone wall. There are various places which sell stencils (you can see some I found on Amazon below), but since a stone pattern is not very difficult you might consider making your own.

You can use spray paint or sponge paint in several different shades of brown and/or grey to create the stone look. I found a tutorial here on how to paint a brick wall with stencils. You can also use plaster for an even more realistic look. Here's some info on how to do that. The instructions are for more permanent features, but possibly could be done on cardboard to get the same temporary look. Not sure how it would hold up...probably would need some extra support.


Wall Painting Tutorials

• Stone Wall Painting Tutorial (Very Realistic)
• Faux Stone Wall Painting Tutorial (Very Realistic)
• How to Paint A Castle Wall (Cartoonish)

See All Rock Wall Ideas Here

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Making a Wall Look Like Smooth Stone or Mud-Plaster

This video tutorial teaches how to make a fake wall look like mud-plaster or stone.

See All Rock Wall Ideas Here