Got the banner hung and hut built on Sunday afternoon.
The NFC platform definitely looks different!
I love that lion!
Archive for the 'My church' Category
I worked on our church’s VBS banner today! The first picture below is the concept image (done in Photoshop to show Michelle, our Childrens Pastor). The 10′ x 10′ canopy on the platform will be the storyteller’s African thatched-roof hut!
Here are some pictures of how it came together…
First I traced the theme logo on butcher paper. It’s 9′ wide by about 4 feet tall.
Here’s a close-up of the tracing. It’s very easy this way!
After laying the paper down on the table, I began to paint.
While this first banner paint was drying, I painted the African hut wall. The next picture shows it in the foreground–ready to dry.
I got a scare with that one… as I was painting the dark top area all of the water from the tempera paint i was using rejouvenated the glue that held the 3 strips of butcher paper! It started coming apart RIGHT as I was finishing the painting! I managed to salvage it (without getting paint on the carpet!) and get the seams back together. Later I realized that by falling right then it kept me from over-working it! (Something I have a tendency to do on watercolor paintings!)
Alison arrived and helped me finish painting the banner!
The logo banner needed a framework, in order to hold it’s unusual shape straight. I used 1/4″ foamcore (lightweight and rigid), and duct tape. I found some pipe cleaners in the resource room, and taped them on for the twine to go through.
On Sunday I will hang it in the sanctuary. I’ll post pictures of the final project, complete with the storyteller’s hut! It’ll be interesting to see how close it comes to the original concept picture.
As part of our church’s 6-week fast, Gregg asked me to make a banner as a focal point and to help illustrate a theme. 
Found near the end of the book of Joshua (Joshua 24:14-28), the story tells about the commitment that the people made to follow God, and the marker stone Joshua placed at the base of a large oak tree, to remind the people of their commitment. We at NFC are corporately and personally renewing our commitment to follow and serve the Lord, so these are exciting times!
After thinking about this opportunity, I decided to do something unusual. Something big. (At 17.5 x 3 feet, this is the biggest banner I’ve ever made!)
It was a fun project! The best part being that I got to spend half of Saturday (including a Subway lunch) with my daughter Alison… Together we enlarged it, painted it, waited for it to dry, and hung it. I’m SO glad she helped me. Without her it would have taken twice as long! Plus she’s a great painter and good at mixing colors!
The drawing:
First, I made the simple sketch with the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator at 1/12th size (1 inch = 1 foot). Then I applied a “charcoal” stroke to the lines, colored them, and filled the areas with simple colors.
Trade secret #1 (how we enlarged it):
We used the church’s projector to enlarge the file directly onto butcher paper that was taped to the wall. We traced the outlines in pencil. Then we painted in the colors, sort of like “paint by numbers” with tempera paint. So cool!
Notice the re-purposing of the projector on the left side of the next photo. We used its cooling fan for a while to help dry the paint! It was pretty slow so we eventually took it outside into the sunshine. A gust of wind overturned part of it, and it did smear in a couple of places (if you look REAL close you may see them), but thankfully no major damage was done!
I brought my Dad’s long ladder with the extended arms to get to the top of the arch, and I taped clean rags on to its arms to keep from scuffing the walls.
This domed structural feature is somewhat like an apse in cathedral architecture. Whatever it is called, there was an amazing view from up there!
Trade secret #2 (how it is held up):
Finished!
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