Triplets - From One Blog to Three!

For the four of you who occasionally follow this sporadic blog, I'm dividing it into three blogs:

• Donna Van Cleve - the blog connected to my Web site that will be related to my books and writing in general. I may put in my two cents about anything here, but the focus will be on writing: http://blog.donnavancleve.com/
• Shelf Mouse - will have library-related entries from now on. I'll start with the current display on both blogs, but will post future displays and library-related articles on Shelf Mouse: http://shelfmouse.blogspot.com/
• Sisterhood of the Comfy Socks - a blog that will eventually have postings by a group of five special gals: http://comfy-socks.blogspot.com/

More to Come!

The Quilt System

The February display tells the story of how people used quilts to send messages to the runaway slaves traversing the Underground Railroad. For the sign, I used MS Word and went to the Insert tab, Clip Art, and searched each letter individually to create a quilt square look for each letter. Click on each picture for a closer look.

I brought two colorful quilts from home to use as the background and draped on a chair, as well as some quilted placemats and a table runner. I brought out all of the cloth  from the supply room and filled every basket I had on hand to make it look like a sewing room.

I pulled books about slavery and the Underground Railroad to display.

Chill with a Good Book

The art classes cut out the most beautiful snowflakes for me last year, and I used them again this year. I said I would take down the black paper surrounding the loft bed for the rest of the displays this year, but the snowflakes looked so pretty up against the black that I decided to keep it one more month.

I made the biggest mess cutting out the snowman from styrofoam packing sheets that came with some kind of equipment, but it made a good snowman. I scrounged around through my drawers and cabinets to find items for the snowman:

*a shiny blue gift bag I cut up for his hat

*a knit Dr. Seuss cap that I used for his scarf (25 cent garage sale find from several years ago)
*a black plastic fork/spoon that I broke off and stuck in the styrofoam for his nose;
*his eyes and buttons are some Percy Jackson button pins that attached easily
*his mouth is made from 3 black binder clips stuck in the styrofoam
*I found a couple of fallen branches under the trees outside for arms.

I pulled books that had to do with snow, ice, the North & South poles, and any cover that had snow on it and displayed them. I scattered more snowflakes on the floor like new-fallen snow.

No Cost Christmas Display

Materials needed for the window sign (sorry about the glare), A Good Book Brings Great Joy:

*Wallpaper sheets (I have a bunch of wallpaper sample books that a designer was getting rid of-- they work great for bookmarks, too); I picked out plaids and small patterned prints in reds, greens, and navy blue

*Printer Paper & printer 

*tape

• 
  
  print out one large letter per sheet, trim to fit on the wallpaper sheet leaving a good wallpaper border,
  
  
  
• 
  
  cut off the corners (I scooped them a bit)
  
  
  
• 
  
  tape to the wallpaper and display
  
  
  

You can also string them on a ribbon, too, for a nice effect.

                                                    

Materials needed for the tree:

*Green Bulletin Board Paper (for the tree: 4 rectangle pieces small, medium, & 2 large) Make a fold vertically in the middle of the horizontal rectangle. Turn it over and fold the top corners to the center line to make a triangle. Scallop the ends (or leave them un-cut for a contemporary look). Tape the back of the triangle where it sticks out away from the background for a 3-D effect and attach to the background (in this case, my black paper-covered loft bed). Stagger the four pieces to make the three levels of the tree. And if you don't understand this, just look at the picture and do your own thing.

*Any color paper for the ornaments (I had a glossy red gift bag on hand that I cut the different size circles out of)

*Catalog with color pictures (I cut up an ALA catalog with great color pictures of posters to put on the ornaments)

*I had a nice bow with long ribbons I used for the top of the tree (oops, it's cut off in the picture); if I didn't have that, I probably would've cut out a star from the wallpaper book.

Team Jacob or Team Edward?

We're out of red and white paper so I used what we had on hand-- those wonderful Christmas colors-- yellow and orange for the presents under the tree.  :  ) I have a hand-me-down wicker chair that I use for a lot of displays that I threw in there, and draped a quilted table runner to the left of the tree. I had some red plaid strips of material that I put on the floor for more color.

Pull holiday books to display for the month of December. If a student wants to check out a display book, that's fine. I replace it with another one.

Another window display was a quote I read in a Mary Engelbreit book some years ago-- couldn't find the author, so I'm giving her credit:

 

Hope you had a good holiday break. I'm sorry I didn't get this up before Christmas. I'll do better with my next display for January-- Chill With a Good Book.

Fall into Books!

I'm in the middle of Book Fair and thought I'd add a quick post of a recent display. In the past I've kept a tree up all year and just changed it with the seasons. For the fall colors, I've used these yellow, orange, and red leaves three times now. The trunk is made of brown packing paper twisted and braided and for the gradually diminishing branches, half the paper and twist, half the paper and twist, making smaller and smaller branches.

I pulled books with leaves on the covers along with books that had the word fall in the title and placed them on the floor with the fallen leaves.

Using the same colors over and over again in a display is a good way to pull it all together. I used the same black background three times now. I'll open up the loft bed for the library's Christmas decorations and the spring displays, but for now, black has been an easy backdrop for the first semester displays.

Inexpensive Solution for Bland Walls

A roll of brown paper was donated, so I used it to put panels above each section of shelves around the walls. I cut 36 panels three feet long, and used an exacto knife to cut out shapes of something that could be found in the bookshelves below. The Statue of Liberty stands above books about the U.S. and the Alamo is above the Texas books. The project took about 3 hours from start to finish, including attaching them to the walls.

My purpose was simply for decoration, but in the three years I've had them up, they've become great traffic signs to direct students around the library. I tell students the fairy tales are under the castle; the sports books are under the basketball, the biographies are under the silhouettes of famous people, etc.

Librarian's Idea of a Scary House

I created this scary house last year for the library. I'm sorry that I didn't get close-ups of each set-up. The librarian's idea of a scary house is:

*Where nobody reads (posted behind the hippo with his headsets on)

*Where library books disappear (book is sticking out from underneath the bed)

*Where library books get damaged (a ferocious stuffed dog is chewing up a book)

*Where there's no time to read (next to the clock)

*Where library books are used for everything but reading (books are stacked under the lamp)


I hope to take this idea and create a picture book someday. I could add a chapter on abused books taken from real life where I've found chili stains, tire tracks, sticky candy within the pages of books, along with broken spines, chewed up corners by teething babies, mold growing on them, (insert scream) not to mention the simple torn and marked up pages. And what about those families who think nothing of moving off and abducting the library books! Frightening!