A Paper & Chicken Wire Snowman

The handy thing about chicken wire is that it will hold things you stuff into it. I tore up packing paper into approximately 6x6 or 6x8 squares and rectangles-- do not take the time to measure anything, just start tearing. Then crumple each sheet up and stuff it into a chicken wire hole. I gave him two black eyes (crumpled black paper), a carrot nose (a twisted piece of orange paper), tree branch arms (twisted brown paper with fingers made from tearing one end into three parts and twisting them), and three green buttons (crumpled green paper). Excuse the reflection from taking the photo outside the library windows-- I should've taken a picture of the display before I set it in front of the window.

This background color is a truer depiction, but the snowman is fairly ragtag-looking from this angle, but it gives him character. I bought two lacy pillow shams for fifty cents each and covered a couple of boxes to display Christmas and winter books in the corners.  The wire shelving is another garage sale find that's become a permanent ficture on the chicken wire frame. Students made big and little snowflakes for the display and to hang around the library. I need to add some more small ones to the background.





I made the wreath the same as the snowman-- tearing green paper and stuffing it in the chicken wire. Add some red wads of paper for the berries, and voila! It's done. I put more holly and berries in the corners and above and below the saying. I think I misquoted a Mary Englebreit saying, which probably needs to say, "A book is a present you can open again and again." But since I'm about to have a book fair, the quote I used will do. Wrapping the back of the chicken wire frame with bulletin board paper makes a beautiful backdrop that pulls it all together.



 Here's a closer shot of the snowman and wreath.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Hanukkah!



Be Thankful!



Where did this year go? I can't believe it is Thanksgiving already. This is the third year I've recycled some beautiful oak leaves cut by my kind library volunteer, Cindy Albers. They have saved me so much time for numerous displays, and they still look great. I rolled the library's big round ottoman from the magazine section over to the corner of the loft bed display background. It reminded me of a round bale of hay. I sat a goofy turkey on top of it and put a realistic turkey on the basket beside it. I wove the brown packing paper in and out of the upper bunk sides and taped the colorful leaves on them.







My library colleague brought some warm plaid material to use, so I draped them over the back and side. Another teacher gave me the top of a seven foot stretch of old fence that I propped on the floor in the background. A garage sale find of a fall banner is displayed along the back.

 I re-used a previous display sign for the side, which faces the interior of the library, and then displayed books along the same color scheme as well as things we are thankful for, scattered on the ground like the falling leaves.

And I have so much to be thankful for in my life-- for my wonderful family and friends and co-workers, for my job and a roof over my head, for an old car that still runs, for more food than I should be eating, for living in a great community and a country that enjoys more freedoms than most anywhere on earth, and especially for my Creator who loves me and gives my life purpose.





A Librarian's Idea of a Scary House 3

This is the third time I've used this idea in some form or fashion. At our other library, we turned an entire loft bed into a haunted house on the outside, and on the inside was a bedroom with all of these scary things. This time to create the house, I wrapped an AV cart in black bulletin board paper, printed out a door and some windows from MS Word clip art, cut them out and attached them.



The shingles took longer than anything--- cutting pieces of cardboard boxes and peeling back the top layer to expose the corregated rows.

I twisted brown bulletin board paper to make a scraggly-looking tree, and recycled the crumpled paper to make it look like fallen leaves. And some of the scary things about this house is that it's:

1. Where nobody reads
2. Where books get chewed up (note ferocious dog)
3. Where books are used for everything but reading

     4.  Where there's no time to read

     5.  Where library books get damaged

     6.  Where library books disappear

Throw in some scary books, and you're all set!







Medieval Round 2

 



I'm in charge of two middle school libraries this year-- two weeks at one and two weeks at the other-- so I get to do multiple displays a month. My daughter and granddaughter cut out two dragons so each library would get one. Because of the direction the school is facing, this dragon shows up good from inside and out.

I made the purple walls at the same time that I made them for the other library, and the purple walls covered the windows originally. But the day before the library officially opened for check-outs, I took them off the windows and wrapped the loft bed like a castle. Add an arched door, and it gives the effect.

These are the cardboard patterns I used to make the stone effect on the purple walls, and they turned out looking cooler than anything else I did. So I placed them on the floor of the display to create a cobblestone look.

Inside the display, I grouped medieval looking items-- a mirror with the book Fairest displayed beside it; a treasure chest, a candlestick, a chess board, and tapestry-looking material.

And baskets are always great to display books.

And the quest starts here!













The Quest Has Begun!

Our school district theme this year is Quest for Excellence so you will see castles and knights and dragons at most every campus. I made the castle walls with purple bulletin board paper and used about ten or twelve pieces of cardboard sheets for the stone patterns that I cut the corners off or cut in different sizes. I always save the cardboard protectors that come in large envelopes or boxes, so most of the cutting was already done. You can even cut up a cardboard box using a serated knife to make your patterns; cut out quick rectangles first, then saw off the corners. Or if you are too tired to mess with the corners, just leave them on and tell everyone you have quality medieval stonecutters on your campus who do precise work. : ) Then lay the cardboard pieces on the purple paper in a well-ventilated area outside. I fought the wind outside for a while, but the garage worked much better. Take spray paint of any color (I used black) to create the look of grout around your stones-- spray around the edges of the cardboard, then pick them up and place them further down the purple paper until you've filled up the sheet with the look of stones.







I drafted my talented daughter and granddaughter to draw and cut out a dragon silhouette and flames for the library's upper windows. They did a great job! If you would like to see more of their work, go to http://www.nessadeeart.blogspot.com and http://imagination-spark.blogspot.com/ . My daughter is an artist/illustrator, and my granddaughter is quickly following in her mother's steps. 



For the other side of the door, my father built a free-standing frame out of cedar fence boards and chicken wire. My principal was concerned for a while that I was going to have chickens in the library. : ) I draped earthy-colored materials and tapestry-looking cloth. Rustic baskets and woven placemats are great to display books in or on. I pulled books about castles, knights, dragons, the Middle Ages, etc.

The silhouette of the dragon is easier to see on the inside of the library than looking from the outside, so it's a nice surprise for students if they miss it coming into the library.

April is showers, poetry & spring flowers!

After two months of brown tones, it was time to add some color to the display. We're having a Poetry Contest this month, so along with April showers and spring flowers, this was a fun idea to quickly throw together. I used MS Word's wonderful letter panels to create the POETRY part of the sign. To make the umbrella-looking shapes, I grabbed some bulletin board paper and made big squares first-- no measuring-- just fold over to make a triangle, cut the leftover off, and keep folding like you would a fan. Cut the corners off, scallop or leave them smooth to make it look like an umbrella. I open them up and draped some of them over the bars, and others I tape opened up. The next part was where I literally threw the display together.

I raided the recycle bin in the paper room and pulled out all of the discarded bulletin board paper, tore them into pieces, wadded them up, and threw them on the floor. When one of my fellow teachers came through and asked me what I was doing with all that paper, I told him I was getting out my frustrations. He believed me, so then I told him they're supposed to look like wildflowers. I'm afraid some folks will only see wadded up paper.

I had fun with it, though. I scattered some baskets around filled with colored grass and added poetry books to the display, and it was done. So wadded up paper or wildflowers, it's April's display.





Remember the Alamo!



March always seems to slip in and slip out before I realize it, and especially Texas' Independence Day on March 2nd. This time I used the backdrop for February's display and hung a quickly drawn and cut-out cardboard Alamo from under the loftbed. I used the "stagecoach" font for the sign and tore the edges. To give it a burned look, run a black marker aroun the edge, and then a layer of brown color pencil. Pull books on the Alamo or Texas history and you're done! Sorry I didn't get this out before March was over.



Black History is American History is Our History



Several book boxes came with a ton of brown packing paper, which I used to weave in and out of the loft bed as a background for this month's display. I wasn't sure what I was going for, other than a consistent look, but after I finished wrapping the frame, it reminded me of tobacco leaves hanging to dry. Tobacco was a labor-intensive crop prevalent on many of the east and southeastern plantations during the slave years, so the look fits Black History month in that way. I haven't said that aloud, preferring to leave the interpretation to the viewer's imagination. I used pictures from the Library of Congress and hung them directly on the brown paper. I displayed books dealing with the time around Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation as well as key people in the early struggle for freedom and subsequent civil rights. It's sad to look back and see those parts of history where people erred in their treatment of human beings-- slavery, the holocaust, apartheid. We tell ourselves we wouldn't be a part of that, but seeing injustice and choosing to ignore it is no different than condoning it. I believe too many of us are asleep in the midst of a present day holocaust when it comes to the deaths of innocent unborn children, but that's not what this display is about so I'll share my thoughts in another post. It's encouraging, though, to see those individuals throughout history that recognized injustice and were courageous enough to do something about it. We especially celebrate them this month.



As I worked on the display, I realized I never thought about what I display each year as being a part of my history since it's Black History month. The title itself seems segregative, like it's set apart from the rest of American history. But I realized that black history is a part of our American history, so it's my history, too, and that's how I'm going to think about it from now on.

I assumed it began years ago because many of the history books failed to record events and contributions  involving blacks throughout our country's history, but I thought I'd better do some research on the origins of Black History month to confirm that. I learned about Carter G. Woodson, who is considered the Father of Negro History and in 1926 organized the first Negro History Week, which evolved into Black History month, although the Web site I retrieved the following photo calls it African American History month.

Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950)

Courtesy of the National Academy of Sciences Online, African American History Program

I found a quote of Woodson's that really resonated with my epiphany that Black History is a part of my history, too. On the founding of Negro History Week he said, "We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice." YES, Dr. Woodson!! Otherwise, we're continuing to set ourselves apart, even with good intentions.

Oh, for the day when Americans are categorized by citizenship, character, & contributions to mankind;

when colors refer to our flag instead of a label to brandish as a crutch or bully stick;

when our history is one history, undivided , & with liberty & justice for all. --Donna Van Cleve