About my materials

Some people visiting this blog seem to come searching for information about GP materials. I'm going to try to collect some information together about my materials here, in hopes that others will find it helpful. This is still very much in progress (page updated March 2012).

The first thing to say about Godly Play materials is that they do not have to be expensive; they do not have to be purchased from an "official" supplier (although some of those suppliers do some really gorgeous work). I've written about this here. I have used a lot of materials purchased from flea markets and put together myself. I have assembled a large collection of baskets by scouring flea markets, usually refusing to pay more than €1 per basket. I do not think of myself as a crafter and I do not own a sewing machine or a workbench. If you are part of a large congregation, by all means ask for help from anyone with woodworking tools, crafting skills, or a sewing machine. But even if not... if I can do it by myself then I'm sure you can too!  :)

Here's a "table of contents" for the info below (which includes further links to blog posts I've written)

  • my Advent materials
  • my art materials
  • my Baptism materials
  • my books for the classroom
  • my Church Year materials
  • Circle of the Holy Eucharist
  • my cleaning materials
  • my desert bag
  • my Faces of Easter materials
  • my Focal Shelf materials
  • my Good Shepherd (parable) materials
  • my Great Flood materials
  • my Jesus the King materials (Palm Sunday)
  • my prayer and peace materials
  • my World Communion materials
  • other helpful links

  • my Advent materials
    • NEW summary here
    • I participated in a materials workshop at the Godly Play European Conference in 2010, organized and sourced by Johanna Kaarto-Wallin. She sold me the wooden plaques (unfinished), and the wooden cut-outs to go on them. I stained and painted the cut-outs at that workshop. I copied some German materials in not staining my plaques, but covering them with felt. I would have preferred a deep purple, but the only felt I could find when I needed it was a very rosy purple. Read a little more here. See my (poor) photograph of some English materials here
    • An easy and beautiful alternative to wooden cards is to make them from felt (as done by Emily).
    • My underlay is just a wide strip of felt, with a square of white felt glued over one end of it with fabric glue, and a very narrow gold cord glued down to separate the "squares". For the cord, I used an ordinary white glue. I found it best to make a long "puddle" of glue on a piece of scrap, and hold a length of cord taut with both hands and "dip" it into the glue, then place it on the fabric. I purchased this cord at a craft shop.
    • my Holy Family figures...  forthcoming  We also made use of Haba figures borrowed from one of the children.

  • my art materials
    • forthcoming
    • I also recommend this post, by Sheila at Explore and Express

  • my Baptism materials 
    • Click on the links to read more about Trinity symbols or my doll. (A later blog post, written when I bought a second doll, considers some of the down-sides of using quite such a large doll.)
    • I also have a basket of tea lights. I first bought a huge pile of tea light candle holders at a flea market for 50 cents apiece, but they didn't hold the tea lights well (who knew that tea lights aren't all exactly the same size?), and so didn't seem safe for use with children. Instead I am now using Ikea candle holders (€2 / dozen). 

  • my books for the classroom
    • forthcoming
    • Share the Feast: Reflections on Holy Communion (reviewed in this post)
    • There are also two books with the prayer basket: Praying in Color (for kids) by Sybil Macbeth, and a short guide to the Lutheran prayer bracelet.
    • my Church Year materials


    • Circle of the Holy Eucharist
    • my cleaning materials
      • forthcoming

    • my desert bag
      • I was in a rush (and I don't have a sewing machine), so I picked out some fabric and took it to a private seamstress. The result is that I have a gorgeous bag, but it cost even more than a ready-made one from Godly Play Finland.
      • Advice on Making a Desert Bag by Godly Play UK (scroll down for the desert bag file or 
    • my Faces of Easter materials
      • I bought particle-board plaques at a craft store, sized 4x6 inches, sanded the edges a bit, and then glued onto them images that I'd printed out myself. (This was a temporary measure to test out the images before purchasing full-size ones.) I brushed decoupage solution over them, and a sealant over that. A less expensive (but less sturdy) option would be to glue pictures to cardboard. Most of my images were from the German series by Juliana Heidenreich, but I used an icon for the last image (read about that decision here). I also made a control card to help children put the pictures away again in the right order.  
      • My underlay is just a strip of felt, cut down to size. For the first few weeks, I confess it was literally just a strip of felt, with no white at the end and no dividers. But then I found time to glue down a square of white felt at the end (I ran out of fabric glue, so used a mixture of that and regular white glue), and narrow lavender "leather-like cord" (purchased at a craft store) as dividers. For the cord, I used an ordinary white glue. I found it best to make a long "puddle" of glue on a piece of scrap, and hold a length of cord taut with both hands and "dip" it into the glue, then place it on the fabric. 

    • my Focal Shelf materials
      • baptism doll (see above)
      • Holy Family (discussed in Advent post)
      • World Communion (see below)

    • my Good Shepherd (parable) materials

      • forthcoming

    • my Great Flood materials

      • forthcoming

    • my Jesus the King materials (Palm Sunday)

    • my prayer and peace materials

      • forthcoming
      • There are also two books: Praying in Color (for kids) by Sybil Macbeth, and a short guide to the Lutheran prayer bracelet.
      • I also recommend Leslie's description of prayer gardens









  • my World Communion materials