Cave Quest VBS Decorating: Cave Entrance

We use cardboard for decorations most years.  Last year, we got donated cardboard and had some leftover.  We decided to use cardboard instead of foam board {like Group suggests} to save on our budget.  We made a cave entrance that will go on stage along with our cave formations {stalagmites & stalactites}.  You can also print or save a PDF of the instructions formatted for printing.

SUPPLIES:
–1 large sheet of cardboard {can be re-used from previous years}
–Brown kraft paper
–Spray paint {we used purple, but you could make it any color}
-Stands to mount cave formations {we used plywood stands leftover from previous years}
–Jigsaw or box knife
–Marker

INSTRUCTIONS:
-Draw formation with a marker on a sheet of cardboard. I free-handed this, but basically went for a rainbow shape. It doesn’t have to be perfect by any means!

-Cut out the cave formation. A jigsaw is the fastest and easiest way to do this! I talked my awesome husband into cutting them out for us. The cardboard was fairly quick and easy to cut using a jigsaw.

-Mount cardboard to stands. We had plywood stands left over from previous years. They’re basically a square of plywood on the ground with a 4″ish wide board standing straight up. I used two plywood posts, one behind each side of the cave entrance. I used a staple gun to attach the cardboard to the plywood posts. The cardboard rainbow shape is actually stapled a few feet above the ground. The paper hangs to hide the fact that there is no cardboard at the bottom of the cave entrance.

-Add kraft paper to cardboard. We used 4’ish strips of kraft paper, then crumpled them and stapled to the cardboard.

-Paint cave entrance. We used purple spray paint and painted lightly over the whole piece until it looked somewhat even. The paint didn’t have to cover the paper fully, just added dimension.

-Attach paper to the back of the cardboard. I used a hot glue gun to glue the edges of the paper to the back of the cardboard. This helped hide all the loose ends. I could have done this when I stapled the brown paper to the cardboard, but we were going to transport the piece so I wanted to wait until after transport in case it needed repaired.

I’m pretty excited for how these turned out!  We’ll have this centered on stage, with cave formations {stalagmites/stalactites} on each side.  I also have some gems and rock formations.  I’ll share more of these projects as we get them ready to go!  For now, the cave formations are in our storage room behind the stage.  On VBS set up day, everything will {hopefully} be ready to go behind the stage so we just have to move it a short distance.

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