VBS Crafts: Bubble Painting Cross
This bubble painting is an easy (but slightly messy) way to make your bible verse or quote POP! It’s a great Father’s Day gift for kiddos to make, too!
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My father-in-law loves the quote from CT Studd, “Only one life ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last”. It’s such a simple quote, but so true! “According to data collected by Promise Keepers and Baptist Press, if a father does not go to church, even if his wife does, only 1 child in 50 will become a regular worshiper. If a father does go regularly, regardless of what the mother does, between two-thirds and three-quarters of their children will attend church as adults. If a father attends church irregularly, between half and two-thirds of their kids will attend church with some regularity as adults.” (source)
Given the alarming statistics above, I think it’s CRUCIAL that we build men up in their roles as strong Christian fathers and husbands! This craft is one way to encourage the faith-based relationship your kiddos have with their dads (or father figures)! I’m using this bubble painting cross craft as a gift for my father-in-law from his granddaughters.
Note: This craft involves blowing bubbles in a paint and soap mixture, which you obviously do NOT want kids ingesting. I’d only suggest this craft for kids old enough not to accidentally drink the mixture. I would not do this craft with preschoolers. If you want to use this craft with preschoolers, I’d let them color the cross with markers or glue tissue paper squares to it.
Supplies:
- White cardstock paper (1 sheet per student)
- Colored cardstock paper (1 sheet per student)
- Cross template and/or cross template with quote (download at the end of this post)
- Disposable tablecovers
- Disposable plastic cups or bowls
- Dish soap
- Tempera paint
- Pitcher of water
- Disposable spoons
- Disposable straws
- Scissors
- School glue or glue stick
- Optional: Markers
Instructions:
- Print one plain cross template on white cardstock paper for each student (this is the one they’ll make the bubbles on, then cut out). Print a second cross template on colored cardstock paper for each student (this can either be the plain cross or the one with a quote, whatever you prefer). We tried this with regular paper and cardstock. It definitely works better if you use cardstock paper for both sheets for each student.
- Cover tables with disposable tablecovers.
- Set out several disposable plastic cups/bowls. Put one color of tempera paint in each cup (I started out with a few drops but realized it took quite a bit of paint to get the bubbles to show much color).
- Add few drops of dish soap to each cup.
- Add water to each cup (it doesn’t take much water).
- Use a disposable spoon to stir each paint/soap/water mixture. (I tried mixing mine just using a disposable straw, but the paint didn’t mix in very well with the straw. A spoon would’ve worked much better.)
- Give each student a straw. That straw belongs to them and can be used in any color bubbles, but should not be shared with other students (to reduce germs spreading).
- Give each student a plain cross template printed on white cardstock paper.
- Instruct kids to choose a cup, blow into it with the straw until there are bubbles over the top of the cup, then lay their paper face down gently on top of the bubbles. They should repeat this process several times with as many colors as they want until the cross is covered and they’re happy with the design.
- Ask kids to cut out their bubble painted cross from the white paper using scissors.
- Glue the bubble painted cross onto the colored cardstock paper. I glued ours on the cross template with the CT Studd quote on it. If you’d rather use this craft with a bible verse or another saying, just print the plain cross on colored cardstock paper… then have the kids add your bible verse/quote with markers.
Templates
To use the templates below: Click each cross, then save it to your computer. Open the saved image, then print at the desired size. You’ll need 2 crosses for each student.
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