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

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