Harvest Carnival 2018

Every year our church puts on a Harvest Festival with a chili feed, costume parade, and indoor trick-or-treating for the kids.  Most of the rooms have an activity, or game for the kids to do.  This year, we went with a pirate theme.  I had such a blast coming up with ideas for the room.  Of course, much to my husband's dismay, it means more props stored in the barn!

Just outside the room, the guests were greeted with a "BEWARE" sign, and a poster that would determine their pirate name.  I found the graphic on the internet and printed it at a local print shop.  The pirate mask came from the dollar store.

Once inside, the kids followed the dashed line through the room, just like on a treasure map.

The first point of interest was the arched window with the ship scene.  I ordered the backdrop from Amazon.  I purchased a 4 x 8 sheet of styrofoam insulation and strategically cut it to make a 6' wide by 7 1/2' tall arch.  I cut the mortar lines for the stones about 1/2" deep with a utility knife.  Then, using a heat gun, I went over the cut lines until the plastic coating started to melt and pull away.  I melted other areas of the "stones" with the heat gun to give them texture.  I then spray painted it the black and grey paint.  I assembled it using some 1 x 2 boards taped to the back.

The scene made a great backdrop for pictures!

  

The cannon was a project and probably will get a post of it's own.  To briefly summarize, I used some sort of garden equipment for the barrel, foam pipe insulation, misc. plastic parts, and salvaged wood from our old barn.  I placed a strand of fairy lights behind some red tissue paper to make the inside of the barrel glow.

Next to the arch was a scene that included a barrel, netting, crates, lanterns, candles, wood pulleys, and heavy rope.

Next, the kids followed the "map" to the ring toss game.  I got the idea from the internet—there are several versions.  I drew a large map on brown kraft paper, burned the edges, and attached it to some thin paneling that I had.  The hooks were purchased from the dollar store and attached by drilling holes into the hook edges and the paneling and then securing with thin wire.  I made some rings from rope for the kids to toss.

After the game, they walked the plank to Treasure Island for their treat....Pirate's Booty popcorn.

 The ship's wheel was made from a wooden lazy Susan that I picked up at a thrift store for $1.  I added some large paint stir sticks and glued them in place.  It actually spins if someday I decide to mount it on something.

 I gathered a variety of treasures from around my house and thrift stores.  The jewelry is from my stash of jewelry pieces that I have had for some time.  We have a local lady that would buy up lots of jewelry from estate sales and such, resell the gold and silver pieces, and then let us go through tubs and tubs of costume jewelry and pick out our favorites.  We would fill a shoebox for only $20.  It was great!  She now has a shop and sells most of her jewelry for $2 a piece...still a good deal!

Of course, we had the lights down low with pirate music playing.  It was a lot of fun!

I like to link to these great parties!