The goal of this contest is to encourage families to make Scripture prominent in their homes, and to share ideas about decorating with Scripture.
Our 2011 contest ended on December 1, and winners are listed here. Almost 900 photos were entered in the contest, and we’ve posted lots of them on the blog. The entrants shared so many creative ways to write Bible verses on the walls of your home and decorate your home with Scripture — we hope you’ll look through the contest posts and be inspired to make Scripture prominent in your home!
Oh, and if you’re interested in a 2012 contest, please let us know. We’re considering making the “Write Them on the Doorposts” contest an annual event!
Contest Rules:
This page lists the official contest rules, along with ideas on where and how you can decorate with Scripture and make it prominent in your home.
What to enter:
Photos of ways you decorate with or display Scripture in your home and everyday life. If it fits the spirit of Deuteronomy 6:9, feel free to enter it!
Your photos can be of Scripture that’s already around your home, or of new verses you have put up during the contest. More example photos are at the bottom of this page.
Rules & Details:
- **Entries are now CLOSED!**
- There are two ways to submit entries: (1.) Email your photos to daniel @ doorposts.com (remove spaces), or (2.) write a blog post (including your photo and a link to this contest), and email Daniel the link to your post. (If enough bloggers enter, we may post a “linky.”) Each entry must be accompanied by the name and email address of the entrant. Use the subject line “CONTEST ENTRY” to ensure proper delivery of your email.
- There is no limit to entries, but each one must be substantially different.
- Entries must be submitted by midnight (PST) on Thursday, December 1, 2011.
- Judging will take place December 2-5, and winners will be announced December 6, 2011. Photos will be judged by members of the Forster family. See below for prizes to be awarded.
- By submitting photos, you give us permission to post them online and/or in our email newsletter.
Prizes to be Awarded:
- Most artistic rendering of Scripture – $100 Doorposts gift certificate AND a 22″x26″ “Delight in the Lord” wall decal from A Great Impression.
- Most effective verse & location combination – $100 Doorposts gift certificate
- Most creative – $75 gift certificate to Wise Decor*
- Best photography – $75 gift certificate to Wise Decor
- Grand prize (entry that best encompasses all the above criteria) – $150 Gift certificate to Exodus Books AND a carved wood 10 Commandments plaque ($200 value) donated by the van Vegten family, owners of the heirloom woodworking shop Gathering Wood.
*Wise Decor generously donated two $75 gift certificates to support this contest. Their Scripture wall decor page offers easy-to-apply, pre-made and custom Bible verses to help decorate your home.
Ideas – Ways to Decorate with Scripture:
- Paper or post-it-notes on the wall (We use these most often for Bible memorization. You might like this page of encouraging verses for moms.)
- Have your kids write out and/or illustrate Bible verses for you to put on the wall
- Framed art/prints of Scripture (Bible verse wall decor is available at most Christian bookstores. Don Jonas Calligraphy offers some reasonably priced prints.)
- Make your own Scripture wall art by decorating your own prints (We’ll post in November about decorating verse prints with dried leaves and flowers).
- Painting with stencils (You can make your own stencil with heavy paper. Here are some helpful stenciling tips.)
- Paint letters on the wall free hand (it helps to pencil the letters out first)
- Vinyl applied letters (pre-made and custom Scripture lettering is available online from Wise Decor. They’re also providing several gift certificates as prizes!)
- Stained glass decorations for windows (storebought real glass, or homemade with tissue paper or craft kits)
- Computer wallpaper (create your own image or search Google Images)
- Quilts or throw blankets
- Banners
- Wood with carved or woodburned designs (Renew Carvings and Gathering Wood offer beautiful Scripture carvings)
- Cross-stitch or needlepoint
Ideas – Places to put Scripture in Your Home:
- Think of places where you will see it most often, like the kitchen, school room, or laundry room.
- Think of places where you know you need encouragement (like Galatians 6:9 in the laundry room, or Ephesians 5:15-16 by the computer).
- In the children’s play room
- In bathrooms (a good place for memory verses, whether they’re part of the decor, or just a post-it note on the mirror)
- Around the top edge of a room (pair up a verse with a stencil design to make a decorative border)
- In the car
- On the refrigerator
- On or near your computer
- Over the TV
- Inside cabinet doors
- In children’s bedrooms
- In your bedroom
- In the living room
- On the backsplash or above the counter in your kitchen
- Sides or top of door frame (inside and/or outside)
We have been using God’s Word all over our house (and on the family van) for years, to help us memorize, to remind, encourage, and challenge us, and so much more. This contest is a great way to encourage others to share their ideas and if they have not yet done so, to write God’s Word on their hearts and on the walls, too. We rent, so we are not allowed to stencil or paint, but if the Lord ever gives us a house of our own, you can believe that we will be getting even more of God’s Word on our doorposts….
I’m sharing with my home school group. We have scripture up in every room except one bathroom, and it’s only because we haven’t decorated that room yet! Great contest, I’d love to see others’ creative ideas and what verses they use.
posted contest on my facebook page. I have several Scripture pictures hung in our home (bathroom, hallway, bedrooms)
Shared the contest on my homeschool email group.
Forwarded contest email to a friend.
Emailed another friend about the contest.
I am thrilled about this new contest and just shared it on facebook and with my email contacts! We just moved to SC and have been decorating it with scripture. This will really give me the incentive to do the stuff that has been in my head since we came! I have a lot of work to do and can’t wait to hear and everyone else’s ideas.
We also rent so we have to get creative with our decorative items. I have several documents I’ve created with scriptures and several that were purchased. I also have several more scriptures planned in my kids’ rooms, bathrooms and our homeschool room.
I love the “Ruby Patience” framed Scripture – did Pam make that? It’s absolutely BEAUTIFUL – and something little Ruby can take with her all her life! Do you ever make these for customers?
I think it is so important to surround ourselves with scripture for the daily encouragement. I will tell my homeschool friends.
Emailed more friends about the contest!
We have scripture above our dining room table. Above the front door and in frames all over the house. It has always encouraged me since our children were born. I pray it encourages my husband and children as well. Thank you for reminding me to ask them. I will share this by email to friends.
What a great idea! I’ve been looking for some new ideas and resources. This motivated me to blog about our implementation of this command at http://trainthemdiligently.blogspot.com/2011/10/write-them-on-door-posts-and-on-gates.html and http://philipmarianne.blogspot.com/2011/10/write-them-on-door-posts-and-on-gates.html I can’t wait to see other family’s ideas!
When you say each one (entry) must be “substantially” different. Does that mean that one entry can be the framed Scripture verses and another entry would be perhaps other home decor’, another entry would be stenciled verses, and yet another entry something such as verses tacked to the bulletin board?
In other words, you cannot have different entries with every entry being a framed verse hanging on a wall? Does that make sense?
lol
Christin, thanks for asking. You may enter more than one photo of framed verses, as long as they are different ones. We just don’t want multiple photos of the same thing. I hope that helps!
sharing on my facebook!! will enter photos soon! this is an exciting contest for my kids and i. i will include it in our art class each week! question..does it just have to be entries from around our home, or can we enter photos a sunday school room as well? a friend of mine and myself and the kids will be painting and decorating my sunday school room this coming week..can i include these as well or just from around my home? thank you
Tamara, if you helped do the decorating in the Sunday school room, you may enter photos of it in the contest. Thanks for asking!
I sent you a few photos yesterday. This is a great contest. I am looking forward to seeing how others have used Scripture to decorate, and it inspired me to not stop with what we have done so far but to continue finding more ways and places to use Scripture on our walls.
I submitted several photos to you but cannot seem to send my last one. I keep getting a failure notice. Should I try again another day?
Hi Daniel,
We entered the contest today. What a great idea!
http://www.we4bates.blogspot.com
Blessings,
Kelli (Florida)
I emailed you my entry today, I hope it might inspire others to team thier children’s art work with Scriptures, we simply hang ours with painter’s tape on th back and the Kid’s love it! They read the Scriptures over and over!
Thank you for the opportunity. I entered a few, but one thing that I didn’t enter was scrapbook pages. Don’t discount the power scripture can have on these pages of family remembrance. We have one page of our children taking care of their animals. I put the verse – Proverbs 12:10 – “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast:” on it. They can all quote that, just from that page. We’ve also done several ABC books with verse that can be used as devotional books for the younger ones. Little ones can memorize scripture quickly in this format!
I tried emailing you my entry, but it came back today saying delivery failed!? What do I do?