This is the third year we have followed the decorating dvd instructions but this year's dvd was problematic for the following reasons:

1.  The supplies were very expensive--sheets of plywood, very large pvc pipes and the "holders" for the pvc pipes.  The opening and closing area is only ONE of a zillion areas we decorate so to make this area so expensive wrecks our budget. 

2.  Much too difficult to construct with our regular volunteers.  99% of our volunteers are women who come in during the day for various amounts of time--we have our system set up so that people can easily step in on a project even if they only have an hour.  I would have had to call a bunch of men to do the sawing and lifting as well as to have them bring in their own saw!  I had to have my husband and our lead custodian at church figure out a way to hang the mountain panels instead of using that way-too-difficult mounting method.  Thankfully, we do our opening and closing in our gym so the guys found a way to secure the panels.

3.  The printout for the 6 panel mountain scene was on one page--in past years the panels each had their own drawing.  I had to make my own drawing, divide it, then blow it up on the Ricoh to get transparencies that could be used.

4.  My husband bought the 4ft cement tubes (he will bolt the tubes together to get 8ft tubes) because it was too time consuming to call around to get the large tubes and even if he could find them--way too many trips!

So, I am very disappointed.  I spent more time than I had to make the decorations fit our available talent, time, and budget.  I thought the idea of the video was to make it easier for overworked vbs directors with very high standards.  I hope that next year the video includes cost saving, time saving methods, and recognition of available talent. 

Suebeth in Edina

Suzybeth

E-mail me actorgeek@cox.net

God Bless,

I just thought I would give my thoughts on the Decorating Places DVD as I am starting to make the decorations for my Bethlehem Village.

First off, I have never seen another Decorating Places DVD before so I don't know how this one compares to the other ones as far as difficulty goes.

I don't have a whole lot of money to spend on Decorating, only about $50.00,  and buying sheets of styrofoam is way to expensive, besides I don't have the tools you would need to cut it.  I'm just using smaller pieces of the white crumbly kind you get in packages.  I've gotten some sheets that are closer to 4' by 4'.  If you use the "heat gun" also known as a hair dryer at my house and dry the edges and parts you've sculpted, it works just as good.  Of course, I don't plan on making anything quite as difficult for my BV because it's only 4 hours!  I wish they would have given some ideas for simpler decorations, or something on a smaller scale.  I agree with others on the fact that most church volunteers couldn't do most of the work involved with this DVD.  Most of the volunteers helping me are about 15 years old.  Giving someone a knife and telling them to cut this huge piece of styrofoam is not a good idea in my book.

I don't know how this one compares to a lot of them, but I'm sure glad I borrowed one instead of buying my own copy.  So I will be creating the same effect, but on a smaller budget.

God Bless,

We were able to make a complete Av. Ranch set, a well for our Galilee by the Sea event and had several sheets left over.   We have saved all that and will cut the AV Ranch sets...repaint them for Powerlab sets, PLUS hopefully have enough left over to make a city wall and our well for Jerusalem Marketplace.

GREAT Money saving tip for Paint- 

I was able to collect left over paint that was close to the colors recommended on the color charts. I gave copies of the color charts to several people who had partial cans of latex paints left over from home painting projects so see if they had any close matches. We lucked up and got a lot of paint that way.

For colors I couldn't get using found leftovers, I combed the mismatched paint bins at Home Depot for ones close to the color needed. I  discovered that the Paint department would help me make even closer matches by adding tints to the paint that was a close match - at no added charge.  They would even help me duplicate a color by adding tint to a really light tinted paint - again no charge.  I ended up only having to pay full price for a few cans of paint.

Lisa B from NC

Lisa B from NC