Roar VBS: 3D Giraffe

This 3D Giraffe was a last-minute addition to our VBS Prep Party projects. We ended up having 3 or 4 men at the Prep Party, so I put them in charge of building a giraffe for us (I had already picked out the boxes I wanted them to use so they just had to build the giraffe and cover it in paper). The guys had fun making it and it turned out to be one of my favorite projects (it was relatively easy to make too)! I’m planning for this life-size 3D giraffe to be in our church foyer before VBS (for volunteer recruitment – more on that later) as well as during VBS (for a fun character in our photo booth).

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This was one of several projects our volunteers completed at our Roar VBS Prep Party. The Prep Party helps SO MUCH to get a head start on VBS and reduce my workload. You can read more about our Roar VBS Prep Party or how to plan your own VBS Prep Party.

Supplies:

• Large roll of yellow paper
• Light brown construction paper
• Scissors
• Duct tape (color doesn’t matter)
• Clear packing tape
• Scotch tape or school glue
• 4 matching long, skinny cardboard boxes or tubes for legs (we used 4 matching boxes from our rolls of 48″ x 200′ decorating paper)
• 1 long, skinny cardboard box or tube for the neck (we used a heavyweight cardboard tube)
• 1 larger rectangle box for the body (we used a copy paper box)
• 1 smaller rectangle box for the head (we used an Amazon box)

Instructions:

• Collect boxes for the each of the giraffe body parts (make sure your legs and neck aren’t going to be taller than your ceiling!)
• Use duct tape to attach the 4 legs into the body box of your giraffe. Our guys took the lid off the copy paper box and duct taped the legs into the inside of the box so the giraffe was more stable.

• Use duct tape to add the neck (round tube or rectangle box) and head (smaller cardboard box) to the giraffe.
• Cover the entire giraffe with large yellow paper. Our team used clear packing tape to attach the yellow paper to the cardboard boxes.

• Use construction paper or markers to add features to the giraffe. Our team made ears, eyes, nostrils, a tongue and a tail.
• Cut different shaped spots out of light brown construction paper.

• Attach the spots to the giraffe using scotch tape or school glue (our guys used scotch tape rolled into circles on the back of each spot).

Everyone has been so impressed by our giraffe! Our foyer ceiling is about 9 feet tall, so the guys made our giraffe about 7.5 feet tall. I’m so excited for our kids to see the giraffe and take pictures with him at our photo booth! My favorite thing about the giraffe is that he was basically free – ALL the supplies we used were ones we already had on hand!

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