Create Cactus Canyon-themed murals to decorate a VBS venue. Use a large roll of brown paper to create a canyon scene. Cut the top of the brown paper to look like the silhouette of a canyon with mountains, valleys and a few cactus silhouettes. Use paint to add details such as green cactus, a howling coyote and some tumbleweeds. You can also use an orange roll of craft paper to create a sunset mural. Add strips of red, yellow and orange tissue paper to create a colorful sky as it might appear at dusk. Cut a large yellow circle to represent the sun. You can add a black layer of paper to the top of the sky paper. Cut the top of the black paper to an irregular top to represent the silhouette of a canyon dips and peaks.
Create an old-west town as the backdrop for your Cactus Canyon VBS. Use simple materials to create building facades around existing church doors and structures to create your town. Use cardboard and brown paper to create wood grain for the facade of various buildings. Create an old fashioned hotel, sheriff station, jailhouse and a bank. Use old-west names and create signs out of wood or brown paper. Let kids earn gold coins for playing games or from good behavior or for learning a memory verse. Create a "General Store" full of inexpensive, Western-themed prizes such as stickers, bandannas and small plastic horses. Let children spend their gold coins at the store to buy prizes.
Use props to enhance the Cactus Canyon VBS experience. Saddles, rope, real potted cactus and cowboy hats are a few items that can decorate a Cactus Canyon event. Use red bandannas as table runners and old lanterns as centerpieces. Hang real horseshoes on the walls and bring in bales of hay for seats and as decorative items.
Involve the Sunday School children in creating decorations for a Cactus Canyon VBS event. Younger students can cut cacti and other Western-themed images out of paper to create a bulletin board for VBS. Create cacti by painting a long, narrow piece of Styrofoam green. Have older Sunday School students stick toothpicks into the Styrofoam to form a cactus. Create a cactus out of a cucumber with toothpicks sticking out of it. Cut the end off of the cucumber to create a flat edge and use a toothpick to secure the end to a Styrofoam round. Then cover the Styrofoam in crushed graham crackers or brown sugar to look like dirt.