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As churches look to be innovative and cutting-edge, is there still a place for good old-fashioned VBS crafts? Absolutely! But only if you are willing to think creatively and carefully about how you utilize your time and resources. These budget-friendly VBS craft ideas are the perfect place for you to start!

It may not seem like some glue and paper towel tubes will lead toward spiritual growth, but giving kids hands-on, tactile ways to remember important truths is a timeless way of planting the seeds of the gospel. 

What Makes A Great VBS Craft

Did you know that 98% of church crafts end up in the trash within 15 minutes of leaving the building? (I completely made up that statistic but I’ve been a parent long enough to think it might be pretty close to accurate!) 

A great VBS craft might not be one that ends up on every kids’ treasured display area in their room. A great VBS craft is one you are able to accomplish within your time allotted, budgeted amount, and reinforces something you want the kids to remember. It doesn’t have to be expensive to be impactful. It doesn’t even have to go home! Here are some craft ideas that can be customized to your theme.

11 Budget-Friendly VBS Craft Ideas

1. Polaroid Pictures

Supplies Needed:

  • Polaroid cameras or a digital camera/phone and printer 
  • Supplies to make a frame to match your theme.

Send your kids home with a picture of themselves or with friends and it’s very likely this craft will at least make it to the fridge. Take pictures of your kids in front of a themed backdrop and print off the pictures right away. You can decorate a frame to match, or just find simple foam frames online that can turn any picture into a cool fridge magnet. 

Budget Friendly Idea: 

Use a phone and send it to a simple printer. Print it on normal paper and let kids color and decorate the picture. 

2. Verse Magnets

Supplies Needed:

  • Memory verse that is written on a piece of paper
  • Markers, stickers, and other supplies to decorate
  • Laminator
  • Magnet tape

Print off your memory verse on a business card size paper. If you are using a box VBS, often they provide a file for a memory verse color sheet you can resize or something similar. Allow kids to color and decorate it before laminating it and putting some magnet tape on the back. Encourage kids to take it home, put it on the fridge, and remember their verse every time they grab a snack!

Budget Friendly Idea:

Use packing tape instead of a laminator to protect the paper before adding the magnet.

3. Food Craft

Supplies Needed:

A great way to utilize craft time, especially with older kids who might feel too cool for crafts, is to make something that can be eaten. If you are crunched for time, you can do crafts and snacks in the same station. Pick something to match your theme. It could be as simple as having kids make a face out of a variety of snack foods like pretzels, crackers, cheerios, and fruit. Or get more complicated and see if they can cut shapes into cheese or make their fruit look like certain animals. 

You could have them mix things together to make interesting colors and flavors. Get creative, search for your theme on Pinterest, and have fun with it. Kids love snacks! It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking for them to enjoy it. 

Budget Friendly Idea:

Make a shopping list and ask your congregation to donate certain food items. It helps those who can’t help with VBS feel like they are contributing, and people are often happy to grab an extra box of crackers while they’re grocery shopping.

4. Sensory Craft While You Teach

Supplies Needed:

One of the best ways for children, especially younger children, to remember and grasp onto information is to engage multiple senses while you are teaching. Give your students an object that they can manipulate while you are teaching. Give them a lump of clay while you teach the creation story and ask them to make the coolest thing they can while you read the story. 

At the end, let them keep their creation to remind them of their Creator! You can do similar things with Legos and pipe cleaners and a variety of other simple manipulatives to many lessons.

Budget Friendly Idea:

They don’t have to take this “craft” home. Let them build and create, and leave the supplies for the next group. I promise parents won’t complain if they have one less little trinket to drop on the floor of the minivan. 

5. Construction Paper Mosaic

Supplies Needed:

One of my favorite crafts to actually hang up are simple mosaics. Use one piece of construction paper as the frame, and rip up a variety of colors and shapes of paper. Let the kids arrange and glue them down. This craft is so easy to adjust based on your theme. 

Try to have them create an animal or character based on your theme. Write the memory verse in the middle of the frame and have them put the mosaic around it. You could even have them create their name or initial with one color and fill the rest of the space with other colors. 

Budget Friendly Idea:

Can it get any cheaper than construction paper and glue? You can utilize all those scraps of construction paper from other crafts you’ve been hoarding in the storage closet thinking “I’m definitely going to do something with these!” 

6. Skill Based Craft

One of the more memorable VBS crafts I’ve done with my students was when we had a Senior Saint at the church come in and teach our kids how to make rope during our cowboy-themed VBS. He had been teaching boy scouts how to do it for years, and was so excited to teach the kids at church. 

Ask around your congregation and see if someone has a special skill they’d like to teach the kids. Even something simple like making bread would be such a fun way to spend your craft time one day, and I guarantee you the kids will remember that craft!

Budget Friendly Ideas:

Let your instructor show bigger more complicated crafts, but find simpler, smaller versions for your kids to do. When we made rope, he had each group make one long strand and then cut it into small pieces so each kid took home a little piece. It was less about the item they took home and more about the experience making it. 

7. Craft That Contributes To The Decor

Supplies Needed:

One way to get double duty out of a craft is to use it as a décor item at VBS. This will be another win with your parents desperate to see the floor of their minivan again. Have kids create faces on a balloon to add to a balloon arch. Let them make paper chains (yes, even Gen Alpha loves making paper chains!) and hang them all over. Create or purchase posters that your kids can color and decorate to match your theme. They’ll love to make something and then see it on display other nights of VBS.

Budget Friendly Idea:

Plan to do this the first night of VBS and use the craft to decorate the craft room. Don’t purchase much (if any) décor for your craft station, and tell kids it’s up to them to decorate it. Have each group do something different, and by the end of the first night, your room will be very whimsical! 

8. Craft To Giveaway

What if you used your craft time not to make something for the kids to take home, but something intended for them to find someone to share it with? Could you create greeting cards that share the gospel and invite people to your church that kids can decorate and then take home to share with friends and neighbors? What if you worked together to put together some freezer meals to be delivered to shut-ins in your church? What if you worked together to make simple fleece blankets to donate to a homeless shelter? 

Budget Friendly Idea:

One of the cheapest options is to put out paper and markers and ask kids to write letters or color pictures to share. You can have them share them or gather up their artwork to share with a local senior living center. 

9. Getting To Know You

Supplies Needed:

  • All about me handout
  • Rolls of paper
  • Markers & Stickers

Another good first night of VBS craft is to create something that tells all about the kid. This could be a simple printable that asks them questions and has them draw a picture of themselves. Or you roll out paper and have them trace themselves and do their best to draw themselves life-sized! 

Whatever you create hang it on a wall during VBS as a way for kids to get to know each other. It’s also a great reminder for you to pray for each kid as you pass by where they are hung while you prepare each day.

Budget Friendly Idea:

There are a ton of free printable options for this. Print off one for each kid and put out markers. 

10. Friendship Bracelet/Salvation Bracelet

Supplies Needed:

  • String
  • Beads
  • Scissors

Friendship bracelets have been well-loved for decades, but they are experiencing a new wave of popularity lately. Kids of all ages enjoy creating bracelets that they can wear and share with their friends. You can customize these to match your theme based on what beads you provide kids. 

Craft stores have so many options you can provide a variety of colors and shapes. Consider pulling out the old gospel beads and teaching kids to share the gospel with their friends when they wear it and make extras to share when they do. 

Budget Friendly Idea:

Watch for sales on beads! They often go on sale in many popular craft stores. 

11. Take Home Craft Kit

Supplies Needed:

  • Box or bag
  • Printed out instructions
  • Pre-Prepped supplies

Consider putting together take-home craft kids and encourage families to make something together. You could use the VBS craft time for kids to pick and put together their supplies and teach them how to make one so they can teach their family at home. There are so many options, but keep it simple and easy to send home with all the supplies needed. Match your theme, and include your verse or main point on the project so families are talking about it at home.

Budget Friendly Idea:

Don’t include items that most people have at home. Glue, tape, markers etc. get expensive if you are sending some home with each kid to keep. Just make sure you provide a list of supplies they’ll need to find at home.

It’s Time To Get Creative!

Craft time at VBS is a time-honored tradition, but don’t get stuck in the same crafts that end up in the trash on the way out the door. Think creatively about how your craft time can reinforce the important message you are teaching your student. And have fun!

Read More:

New Ways To Reach Parents At VBS

Top Small Church VBS Family Night Ideas

How To Do VBS At The Park

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Amber Kreider has served on staff at a small church in northern Indiana for the past 10 years focusing on children’s ministry, administration, women’s ministry, special events, and more. She also fulfills several volunteer roles with the Missionary Church North Central Region and with a K-12 private Christian school that her husband teaches at and their two children attend. Amber loves talking ministry with other churches and getting creative on using whatever resources God has given us to the best of our ability.