Live, Document, Craft…an Inspired Life

As many of you know, when you are a creative person you often get asked to organize group projects. Last summer I was asked to coordinate the opening activity for an intergenerational church camp. I wanted to do something that all ages could participate in, as well as something that would be visible throughout the week. I decided we would create a community banner.

I began by purchasing two paint drop cloths from the hardware store. They are cheap, and they don’t let paint bleed through. Perfect for this project! Then I used a projector to shine my image on the cloth. If you are artistic you could draw this yourself. I needed something to trace.

Once the image was drawn I went over it with black paint. I just used washable kids craft paint.

I made sure that the outlines were thick and dark. Because I knew a bit of the paint might soak through I put cardboard under each section as I painted and did it outside. The sun also helped it dry.

Prior to the event I cut the design into lots of squares. For our group of around 150 people I needed about 60 squares. To be sure that I was able to put the squares back in the right place I numbered them on the back.

Then came the fun part. I gave each family group a square and some paint. They could decorate their square any way they wanted, but the could not paint over the black lines. Because they hadn’t seen the full image, all they knew was what their square looked like. Everyone was involved, and truly enjoyed painting their small piece of the whole.

Once all the pieces were dry, and after the campers were all in bed, I re-assembled the banner. Using the second drop cloth as a base I used spray adhesive to attach each square in it’s place. This amazingly beautiful colorful masterpiece was the result.

I love how this project not only involved the entire community, but through it’s diversity of design it also represented our individuality. Such a fun project for a large group activity!

Have you ever organized a group craft project? What did you do?

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