FREE CHURCH BULLETIN BOARD IDEAS (2024)

Alpha and Omega

Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. Christian churches often use these letters to symbolize God’s eternal nature.

I created this simple design with a background of light blue bulletin board paper. I then painted an infinity symbol onto the paper with a metallic finish craft paint. After the paint was dry, I glued my hand-cut foam board alpha and omega symbols to the bulletin board paper.

Tip: Add a few extra staples to the paper under where you will be gluing the foam board. This will keep the weight of the foam board from pulling the paper down.

Finally, I cut the lettering out of black and white dollar store posterboard and stapled them all in place.

Chi Rho

Like the alpha and omega, the Chi Rho symbol is also made up of Greek letters. Chi and rho are the first two letters in the Greek word for Christ. The two letters are superimposed to create the symbol that is frequently found in Christian churches.

The background for this bulletin board is metallic wrapping paper. I particularly like to shop at Target around Christmas for pretty and good quality wrapping paper.

I used white paper meant for easels and cut pieces off the roll that were a foot or so longer than the height of the bulletin board. I cut the lettering out of gold cardstock using my Cricut machine. I then glued those letters to one of the lengths of paper. In retrospect, I wish I had used a gluestick rather than craft glue. The moisture of the craft glue caused the paper to wrinkle; I don’t think the gluestick would have caused that problem. I used gold metallic craft paint to paint the Chi Rho symbol on the other length of paper.

I stapled the paper to the board, rolled up the excess paper at each end, and stapled that in place at the top and bottom of each paper to create the scroll effect.

I outlined the Chi Rho with pearl-head push pins. Then I wrapped wire string lights around the pins. Remember when string art was super popular back in the day? That’s the technique I used. I fed the cord under the back of the paper scroll to make it less visible.

Anchor

The anchor is another famous Christian symbol. It reminds us that our faith is anchored in Christ even during the storms of this sinful world.

I created the watery background of this bulletin board by using two blue disposable tablecloths from Dollar Tree. I gathered and stapled the tablecloth to cover the whole board and look like turbulent waters.

I used bronze and silver metallic craft paint to create a weathered metal look to two black dollar store poster board pieces. I drew a rough shape of an anchor over those two pieces and cut it out. I also cut several wide strips of the scraps of the painted poster board that I stapled together in a paper chain and connected that chain to the top of the anchor.

The lettering is all Cricut-cut white dollar store poster board.

Cross and Crown

The combination of two common Christian symbols reminds believers that while we may suffer in this life, Christ has prepared a crown for us in heaven.

I love the contrast of the two parts of this Bible passage, so I tried to make the design communicate that. I first covered the right half of the board with cloud-printed Fadeless paper and added a holographic gold border. I measured enough black bulletin board paper for the left side of the board, plus a bit extra. I then fully crumpled the black paper to add texture to it. I spread it out again and stapled it to the board. I roughly ripped the edges of the paper, rather than cutting them with scissors, to give them a very jagged finish.

I cut dollar store foam board to create the two pieces of a cross. I used brown craft paint and a wood-graining tool to give them foam board the look of rough wood. I made the crown by cutting gold holographic poster board. I glued the foam cross to the bulletin board and then stapled the crown to the board so it would round out from the cross, giving it a dimensional look.

The lettering is all dollar store posterboard that I cut with a Cricut.

Crown of Thorns

The crown of thorns reminds us of the pain and mockery Christ suffered in our place on the cross. His perfect life and innocent death earned forgiveness of sins and eternal life for all believers.

The background of this board is purple mylar wrapping paper from the dollar store. The mylar makes a really pretty background, but it rips very easily. Be delicate with it!

The oversized cross is made by doubling over brown kraft paper from the dollar store. I cut black posterboard to create the crown of thorns and stapled it to the board so it looked like it was hung around the cross. The lettering is also white posterboard.

The Pascal Lamb

The symbol of the Pascal lamb draws both on John the Baptist’s words about Christ in the New Testament and on the Old Testament Jewish sacrificial lamb. Jesus Christ is the Pascal lamb whose blood earned salvation for all who believe.

I cut the lamb design from white poster board. I needed to use the tiling technique in Design Space to cut such a large design. The letters are also cut from poster board. The background is kraft paper that you can buy on a roll at Dollar Tree.

I used a wide paintbrush and red craft paint to paint behind the flag and to add stripes of paint behind each line of text. I hoped that this would also make people think of the blood of the lambs that the Israelites painted on their doorframes on the first Passover.

Butterfly

Butterflies are often used as Easter symbols to remind us of Jesus’ resurrection. Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, He emerged triumphantly from the tomb after three days.

I have shared the process for making origami butterflies on the blog here before. I used that same process to make dozens of colorful butterflies from origami paper. I like to make my Christmas and Easter bulletin boards more elaborate, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have spent so much time folding tiny butterflies!

The background is just blue bulletin board paper and the lettering is white poster board. I stapled a little more than half of the butterflies directly onto the board. I added a monofilament line to the rest of the butterflies and hung them from the ceiling around the board so they would look like they were taking flight from the board.

Dove

The dove is often seen as a symbol of peace even outside of the Christian church. It is also often used to symbolize the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

I did this bulletin board the month after the Chi Rho board, so I just left the background paper up from one month to the next. The lettering is cut from blue dollar store posterboard, and the doves, crosses, and olive branches are sections of garland I bought on Amazon.

Cross

The cross is the most well-known Christian symbol. Because of God’s love for us, He sent His son to die on the cross for the sins of the whole world.

I created the ombre background of this board by using a multi-pack of purple cardstock. I stapled the individual pieces of cardstock to the board in three colorful stripes.

Tip: If you use colored cardstock as the background for a bulletin board, you can reuse it for other projects when you take the bulletin board down.

The lettering is all cut from black poster board.

Kyrie/Lord, Have Mercy

The background of this board was made from purple posterboard and black bulletin board paper. I used my Cricut (and the tiling technique again) to create the large praying hands. The words were cut from black poster board.

Prayer

I covered the background of this board with white bulletin board paper. I added a red glittery border and then filled the area inside the border with overlapped heart-shaped doilies from the dollar store. You can find them in-stock around Valentine’s Day.

I hand-painted red poster board before using my Cricut to cut the lettering for this design.

Hymn of Praise

I used scraps of bulletin board paper and poster board to create this layered mountain scene. Most of the shapes were hand-cut as I was assembling the board to make sure I was getting the best use out of all my scraps. The lettering is, you guessed it, a dollar store poster board.

Verse of the Day/Alleluia

I used my Cricut to cut craft foam to create a homemade “alleluia” stamp. I then stamped the red bulletin board paper background with gold metallic paint to cover the background with alleluia. I created the dimensional Bible by stapling black and white posterboard together to create a giant book. I stapled the spine of the book to the bulletin board first, then I rounded the pages before stapling their edges to the board. This created the effect that the Bible is lying open on a table.

The lettering is Cricut adhesive vinyl that I applied to the poster board.

Sanctus/Holy, Holy, Holy

I used a green multi-pack of cardstock to create the block background of this bulletin board. I, again, cut the lettering out of poster board.

I made the palm branches by folding the green poster board in an accordion fold. Then I cut the individual fronds on each of the folds. These were a little tricky to staple to the board without flattening them out, but I made it work.

The Magnificat

I bought a few pieces of black poster board and painted them with blue and gold craft paint. I accented the posterboard lettering with gold and navy accordion fans from Amazon.

The Song of Simeon

The background of this board is starry wrapping paper from Target. The cliffs are made of kraft paper that I crumpled and stapled to the board to sculpt the rocks. The waves and the beams of light coming from the lighthouse are dollar store tablecloths.

I made the lighthouse from white and red dollar store poster board. I created a slight funnel shape with the white poster board which I then wrapped with strips of red poster board. I used white vellum to make the windows of the lighthouse. Finally, I added a gold glitter cardstock cross to the top of the lighthouse. The lettering is blue poster board.