International Women's Day 2011

We put up the banners and signs - it's great to have resources from previous years.  Check out the entries here to see what they are!

Cheers

Ruth (who wore green today)

GIFSL* no.56: Valentine's Day 2011

What's a teacher librarian to do to fancy up the library for Valentine's Day? (note: as ever, not just for pretty's sake, but to change the space, add excitement and buzz and encourage reading, to get them through the door.)

Cast your peepers over this idea:

That's made from free stuff, folks.  Catalogue/magazine pages.  The tutorial (and source of the picture) is here  but it's not at all a hard idea to play with.  Is it?  Maybe you've got kids who'd like to help?  Maybe you could have some with the names of favourite books/characters on them?  Maybe...

Go play.  Have fun.  Make your library special for your kids, so they say WOW and love being there.  Isn't that how it should be? And won't that be fun for you too?

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries

Valentine's Day ideas for your library

Click on the link below for some Valentine's day ideas from our library in words and pictures.  I like Valentine's as a start of year theme because it's friendly and happy for our new kids (esp. Year 7).  Our SRC or Year 12 also use it for fundraising, so our displays support/promote that too.


The banners are back,

the posters are up (printed on reds and pinks this year),

Please note this is my original and copyright wording.  You're welcome to use it in your library, but it's not for commercial use.  Copyright © Ruth Buchanan 2009.

our entrance ceiling is awash with hearts

and the bookmarks are going out the door with every loan. 

I have some pink heart-shaped post-it notes and ideas about using them...more on that another time.  Oh, and our bookcase is loaded up with pinks and reds (which includes adventure books and so forth, not just love stories or girl-oriented stories).

Read all about these ideas at the links you'll find here: http://skerricks.blogspot.com/search?q=valentine

Cheers

Ruth

Hallelujah!

For ten years I used to sing in the Radio Community Chest choir's annual performances of Handel's Messiah.  Love this flash mob rendition from Canada of the Hallelujah chorus.

Original link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Two weeks of term and the school year left to go.  Along with another teacher, I am one of the organisers (Archangels) of our staff secret angel scheme which runs in the last week of school.  Like the performance in the video, it's about changing the atmosphere (given that the peeps can be a tad tired in that last week), adding joy, creating fun.  We've been doing that for over ten years, and enjoy facilitating the fun that ensues for all those who participate - and of course it spills over to the place generally, all good!

If you nag me enough I could put the details of how our secret angel scheme runs here...just don't have it by me right now.

*C*h*e*e*r*s* (with fairy lights)

Ruth

PS. Have to show you our school library Christmas trees - all about books and kids!  Sometime this week, I promise! We're busy with the annual stocktake, and have the Year 6 into 7 Orientation this week, and I don't know what all.

Trees on special! Holiday Borrowing! Easter!

If you remember these trees and thought, hmmm, maybe.... a white tree could be just the jim-dandy thing I'm looking for to spruce up that corner of my library...

They're on special now, as Easter grows closer.  30% off at Bed Bath 'n' Table.

So are these eggy necklaces (well, restring 'em on hat elastic and you have a necklace!).  I'll be wearing mine for the rest of the term.

And next week we'll go into Holiday Borrowing mode (which is why I wear the necklace), with just two weeks left of this term.  Must find those Easter decorations I bought last year after Easter at 50% off...

Cheers

Ruth

International Women's Day 2010

One of the advantages of banners and bookmarks and signs is that, when Annual Occasions roll around (eg. International Women's Day) you can do Same Song, Next Verse.

So we have our purple/green banners and bookmarks back in action, with women/girls able to sign the banners on Friday lunchtime.  This year's Year 7 students have been reading them over, and students here last year who signed them then have had fun finding their names again.

The signs (love that cornucopia of language about women) are back on the noticeboard.  I meant to do put up some ribbonry or some such, but you know, time has got away.

Our ever-useful bookcase has books about famous/heroic/achieving women, with some pictures of fine Australian women across the top.  This is one of the times when we do one face-out book per 'box' rather than lots for browsing.  Always good to change things around, make them look different, encourage a second look.

For more resources, try the International Women's Day site.

Cheers

Ruth

TGIF.  Gosh I'm tired.  Must be the mad pace of this term so far, the heat and humidity, the way it's felt a tad relentless...some days it feels like you're trying to run in glue, and the goal you're after keeps receding as you scoot from task to task to question to find to help to question to task to phone call to....  So many kids are so terrific - when they tell you about a book they've enjoyed, or you help them understand something that puzzled them, or tell you a story about their life that makes you chuckle, or like yesterday when one boy quite out of the blue got four strikes in a row at sport/tenpin and it was fabulous to see his achievement.  I've got so many great colleagues.  Plenty to be grateful for.  But right now, this morning, it's exhausting rather than invigorating.  TGIF! (Thank goodness it's Friday).

GIFSL* 49: Winter Olympics 2010

Following on from Valentine's Day, our next theme for bookmarks and entry and banners relates to the current Vancouver Winter Olympics.

The banners were ones we had made last year; they suit the winter idea, but we used them before and will use them again because the design on the fabric is intriguing, somewhat surreal, full of stories.  For the Winter Olympic thing, it has snowy mountains, and the cool blueness - but these banners are definitely getting other outings.  The fabric is Annamoa in blue, from Ikea.  Some mad crazy fabulous illustrations on the various colours in that range (each colourway has different illustrations on it).

The world time clocks in the foyer include Vancouver time.

On the noticeboard behind the desk, we feature (rather plainly, but you cain't do everything spiffing all the time) the Olympic motto and a quote from Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, along with the Vancover logo.

And there you have, in some respects, why I've used the Games; the ideal of doing your best, and the idea of doing, the attempt being more important than the win.  Not a bad idea to promote.

The bookmarks feature these two quotes and the Olympic rings, and golly gee, nothing about Vancouver 2010 specifically - so I'll be able to roll 'em out next Olympics.  Economy of effort!  As usual, printed on coloured cardboard - red, blue, yellow, green and white - reflecting the colours of the Olympic rings (in the case of the last one, the black on the white, which is vastly cheaper to do than the reverse!)

Hey, did you notice the allusion to the Olympic rings on the bookcase?

The top shelves?  Colours are in the right order, too.  Aren't coloured spines handy for decor???  Just yesterday I had some lovely junior girls say how they liked the Olympic rings on the bookshelves (they spotted it without prompting), and how the library has different themes and always looks nice.  Which was lovely to hear, since we do it for them.

Always happy to read your comments...

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL: Good ideas for school libraries

GIFSL* 48: Valentine's Day 2010

I know, I'm sorry, too late for you, but hey, bookmark this or bung it in your Delicious list or save it in your reader, and you can use it next year.  And the year after...

Valentine's Day is a convenient starting 'theme' for the school year - being nice to others, in the most general sense, combined with 'love reading'.

We had bookmarks, featuring the prose I wrote last year (read it here).  Cardboard colour choices? Pink and red.  A bookmark for every borrower, library PR, useful for the borrower and summat for nuffink that the kids appreciate.

We unpacked last year's Valentine banners (featuring a quirky fabric marrying hearts and skulls, just the thing to appeal to teenage taste).  Read all about how to make them here.

Note the bookcase selection: pinks and reds and a few purples, and while the pinks give it a girly cast (there are not a lot of uber-boy books with pink spines) the reds mix it up so there's something for every browser/reader/borrower.  Books picked on a colour theme can be rather handy at helping the kids find books they might not have found before, too.  Apart from the obvious purty factor.

Hey, did you notice something else on which I have not yet commented?  Up in the air...

Ah, God bless Ikea's little cotton socks for having a heart theme for Christmas 2009.  These wooden hearts, sold two to a pack, were severely reduced after Christmas and I snaffled them up.  Perfect for Valentine's Day; and their scale good for this purpose, as they don't get lost.  It's awfully worthwhile checking our holiday decorations after the event and seeing if there are bargains to be had that can be deployed in your school library.

If you wanted to do something similar, you could try heavyweight cardboard, painted, or even balsa wood cut to shape and painted.  Neither one immensely difficult nor immensely expensive.

I'm also very grateful that, while we have a high ceiling through most of the library, we do have lowish ones in the small foyer area, which allows us to do things such as hanging these hearts.

What did the kids think?  Cool, miss.

It was a nice mood and way to start what's proving to be a hectic, busy, cheerful year.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = Good ideas for school libraries

Happy Holidays, see you in 2010!

GIFSL* 45: School Library Christmas Trees: 1

Who'd have one Christmas tree when more will do??

Reading the Christmas issues of Australian magazines such as Inside Out (their Christmas issue this year was brilliant!) and Home Beautiful, I came across this idea:

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...and I got to thinking.  It's got potential, but a I need a blank wall. 

In the library entrance.

Where we've painted a word wall, and I ain't stickin' anything on that...

but

I don't have to, do I?

Because if you turn around our ever-useful bookcase...

...you have a blank wall.  Yay!

And then if you buy a length of wide creamy white quilt wadding, and use a couple of bulldog clips, you have a background (if you're really indulgent, and squint, you might think, very vaguely, of snow.  Not that there's any of that around here, we've been having hot hot days over 30degC, a warm start to summer).

Christmas cards? Meh. What is one of the things ornamenting the library?

Our beautiful students, of course!  I took a bunch of photos of kids in the library, got them printed as 4in x 6in photos (less than 20c each) and just used white ball-head pins to attach them to the wadding.

Here's the result:

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We outlined it in a simple ball-garland, added a couple of decorations and some low-voltage fairy lights under the wadding at the base of the tree, and there you are.

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The kids love to see themselves and their friends; it's also a message to them that we value them (another bit of library PR - there are so many ways to welcome and encourage kids, and thus get them in the door and using the library, discovering the library, being happy in the library.  If you're happy somewhere, you're more likely to come back...).  Any of our 'decorating' is never just pretty-pretty - it's for educational reasons, and judging by the library usage, they're working as we intend.  I've had some commentary from a couple of presentations I've done recently where people have said they  'don't have time for this decorating stuff', which is why I make this point.  How many libraries do you know that are stale and old and boring (not to mention school blocks, school classrooms...); do you like walking into stale and old and boring places?  Do you want to?  Do you want to stay, or explore them?  Why would kids be any different?

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(In case you wondered, most of the commentary after those presentations has been overwhelmingly positive, which is great! - it's been fun to share our journey and ideas with other teacher librarians.)

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The Christmas banners are made from Snoa fabric from Ikea's Christmas 2009 range ($9.99 per metre).  While the heart is a great graphic image, our two pillars are actually different heights.  Making each banner with a single heart and a co-ordinating fabric below means that you can't tell (as you could if we had used all the heart fabric and had a big half-heart on a banner - and who wants to be half-hearted?!).

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I've shown you a number of our banners on Skerricks this year - use that search box up on the left to find them (they're also under the library display tag).  The first blog entry about banners, which included sewing instructions, is here.  We've done a few, and will use them again through next year.

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At the end of term, we'll fold away these Christmas banners and wadding; next year, take more photos, and be able to put up banners and the new edition of the tree of kids (our only cost being the photos), easy-peasy!

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I'll take photos of our other trees and blog them before the end of term.

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We'd love to read your comments...

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Cheers

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Ruth

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* GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries

Halloween cupcakes III

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You need to go and see the recipe to see its full glory - the cupcakes are marbled vanilla/red, to enhance the eyeball look!

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Another triumph of surreal foodie imagination from food blog Not Quite Nigella.  Boggle your mind with her amazing Hallowween party feast.

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Cheers

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Ruth

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PS.  I do wonder, in idle moments, if there are other teacher librarianship blogs covering such essential material as brain cupcakes and eyeball cupcakes.  But then the idle moment all too quickly passes, something else shiny catches my eye, and I toddle onward, amused, pursuing my own particular yellow brick road.

Halloween cupcakes II

Vampire bat cupcakes, courtesy of Martha Stewart.  All details here.  She has lots of Halloween resources on the site, as you might expect.

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Cheers

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Ruth

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who plans to download, fix up and post our Halloween decor (short on gore, and with a few special details that are just for fun) pictures any day now...

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Halloween cupcakes I

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Sorry, should I have warned you about that?!

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The writer of food blog Not Quite Nigella has a mad imagination.  Find the recipe for these here.

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We're busy making bats (not food ones) - will show you the results soon.  We don't go gruesome like these cupcakes for the rest of our Halloween decorating, but I did find them hilariously horrid....

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Cheers

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Ruth

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GIFSL*: 21. Tree

Taking a break from the break, I wanted to let you know about this idea, since some of you may want to pootle out and invest yourself.  But I'm really on holidays.  Except when TL-brain kicks in with an idea.
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I'm sure you're familiar with Christmas trees.  We have a library Christmas tree (see some pictures here).
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The Tree is something that homewares shops and decorating magazines have been, I've been noticing, extending to other seasonal celebrations.  Halloween, for example.  Black tabletop trees can be found.  Easter decorating isn't something I've seen in a lot of homes, but the shops are working on us... Maybe it's a tad more difficult in our southern hemisphere, where Easter doesn't arrive with spring and relief from winter, but instead finds us grateful for the relief from summer heat, and the arrival of autumn (fall) (not everyone agrees with me, but spring and autumn are my favourte seasons).  Nevertheless, the iconography of bunnies and chicks and eggs is still around, and some shops sell Easter decorations.
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Including this tree.
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Which I thought very promising. 

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I'm all for multiple-use decorating.  If you've read this blog for a little while, you'll notice that the dark brown bookcase in the foyer lends itself to multiple-uses.  Likewise, although this tree may be sold as being for Easter decorating, it's not specifically Easterish, in its native state.  Is it?  So it could be used for all sorts of things, couldn't it?  I've seen these around at Christmas time too, but not one this size.  It's approximately  100cm/38in tall by 70cm/26in wide. Big enough to have some impact in a school library, where small decorations can look dwarfed by the scale of the space.  And it's flat, so it can fit on the table behind the borrowing desk.

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Right now, I haven't done anything but buy one, because they're 50% off at Bed Bath 'N' Table, now $50 (they were $99.95).  Before you faint, consider the price of a laminated poster (often $25).  And think how you could use this tree in a multitude of ways throughout the year; and how you could decorate it in ways that involve imagination and available resources rather than money.  Lots of possibilities.

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So this is your heads-up.  The BBNT chain doesn't have a web site or online ordering; I don't know how long their 50% off Easter decorations will last; in fact, I know nuffin more.  But I'm sure this tree will feature on this blog, and wanted to show it now in case anyone else might like to buy one (and no, I have no shares in BBNT!).  If you want to find a store near you, try http://www.whitepages.com.au/.

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Cheers, Ruth

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*GIFSL = Good Ideas For School Libraries
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Holiday Borrowing

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For the last two weeks of term, I've been wearing this 'egg' necklace as a nonverbal reminder of holiday borrowing.  It's actually an Easter decoration I bought from Bed Bath 'N' Table, $9.95 (I restrung it on hat elastic).  Pretty/amusing.  Or maybe I'm just easily amused.

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It didn't take too much time to do the various things we've done to promote holiday borrowing.  The costs were small - cardboard, prizes etc - plus of course time.  But many of the templates are reusable next year, with the odd tweak (eg. date due).

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What have been the effects?  In comparison to other years, when we haven't promoted holiday borrowing, the loan stats are up over 80% on the figures for the last two weeks of term for those years.

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The kids are anticipating holiday borrowing now; it has a place in their sense of the school's yearly pattern.

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There have, this time, been more conversations than ever about reading, and reading as a fun, chosen activity, all around the school: through the quizzes, through students talking with teachers about what's on their badges; and through teachers discussing what's on their badges with their colleagues.  Each one is good, another positive.

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We've been constantly refilling the displays near the library entrance, the bookshelf and the table - lots of books finding friends, gaps appearing throughout the day as books are borrowed.

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There's plenty more we can try next time: more classes coming in to borrow for the holidays, maybe some 'direct marketing' by email to junior students, some roll teachers have asked if the quizzes can have a prize at the end: lots of possibilities.

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So it's been a busy end to a busy term (our loan stats this year are up for the whole term too, in comparison to other years) and we are looking forward to our Easter holiday break.

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Thanks for reading this blog this term, and especially thanks to those who've left kind or informative or appreciative comments - I appreciate your feedback.  It's good to know this blog is proving to be a useful resource to teacher librarians.

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Normal blogging will resume in late April/early May.  We plan to do some more painting in the holidays - remember those paint chips from a week or two ago??!!

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Cheers, Ruth

Good ideas for school libraries: 20. Holiday Borrowing part 2

As promised, the rest of our holiday borrowing spin'n'marketing plans....

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Double Borrowing Passes

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Some of the most voracious readers pointed out to me, quite reasonably, that our normal limit of four items per borrower just wasn't a fair or happy thing, when faced with all that a voracious reader would need to stay happily reading.  OK, I said, what can we do?  Let us borrow MORE! they said.  OK, I said, good idea.  What about a double borrowing pass?  YES! they said.  So I got typing with Microsoft Publisher, and our Library Colour Paper (the duplicating room doesn't have this teal):

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And of course one should give credit where credit is due; and and my dear papa always says there are TWO sides to a piece of paper (given the propensity of children to only notice one, and thus run through paper at a rate of knots), so here's the back:

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Much better to use it this way than leave it blank - who knows who'll read it, and what good it might achieve for the library, quite apart from bringing a happy smile to the kids thus acknowledged.

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How does this work?  My basic rule has been, you can have one as long as you haven't got any overdue books.  Juniors with a pass can borrow up to 8 items, seniors with a pass, up to 16; but it's been mostly the juniors who've wanted them.  When I announced this initiative on the whole school assembly, there was an audible buzz of enthusiasm, which was lovely to hear.  The passes are mentioned on the staff "I'm reading" badges, and on the quizzes, and we have a sign at the desk reminding students that they are available.

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We didn't do any resetting on the borrowing system; if a kid produces one of these passes, we just override the usual limit.  This way, there's nothing to re-reset after the holidays.  If they end up with a couple more than eight, well, it's probably not going to be a problem.  We'll just do the usual overdues and worry about the rest if it needs worrying about.  Our focus is on facilitating borrowing and encouraging enthusiasm for borrowing.  One result has been kids happily borrowing whole series (eg Marsden's Tomorrow When the War Began), because they can, and they can then read the lot in one go.

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Worth doing again?  Oh yes.  Cost nothing beyond the paper, and ties in with other marketing passes/coupons/cards the kids are familiar with - a freebie, a short-term opportunity, a bargain...

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Bookmarks

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If you've read this blog before, you know we do bookmarks - always have them on the borrowing desk, a varying assortment depending on the season, what we're promoting and so forth.  So holiday borrowing bookmarks are a given.

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These are the same green (the light fell differently), the same lime used for the teacher badges etc, our 'colour' for this holiday borrowing promotion; the fancy font is the one I've used for this too, along with our standard library font.  The bookmarks serve as an extra reminder of when books are due back (from the point of view of look how LONG you have rather than BRING THEM BACK YOU LOT, which is a kinda anti-marketing tone) as well as featuring really really bad slogans and being a helpful little freebie. 

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I made up the bookmarks in Microsoft Publisher, as I usually do (using ordinary Publisher clip art).  The images below are the generalised version I sent to the NSWTL list; our school ones feature our school name.

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For those in the northern hemisphere who might be a tad puzzled, Easter is autumn (fall) here, not spring.

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The Lucky Draw for Borrowers

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This is an idea I've borrowed from a colleague (who knows who she is); only I'm meaner than she is... This has been running during the two weeks of holiday borrowing.

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A student gets one entry form per loan, that goes into the draw.  The prizes are EITHER Easter Eggs, or A Toothbrush!

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No, the students don't get to specify their choice of prize... Toothbrushes are from a two dollar shop, cost $1 each; Easter eggs from Aldi, $1.67 per bag.

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Here are the slips, another Microsoft Publisher piece (figured I'd make them small, for economy; it asks what they borrowed, although I'm not sure if I want to read this many...

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The draw will take place on the whole school assembly tomorrow...in two stages.  Stage 1: twenty winners drawn from the above.  Stage 2: twenty winners come out the front and draw to see if they win Easter eggs or a toothbrush.  Should be fun! - and amusing, and happy associations for the library.  Or so I hope.

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If you have a devious mind, you might be wondering if devious minds among the kids have worked out that they could get a double borrowing pass and borrow up a storm to get lots of entries in the draw.  Not a problem.  Any really blatant borrowing not appearing to involve any sort of reading, I would have a moment about, but it hasn't happened (or it's been subtle enough not to come to my attention).  Also, it's only one prize per person (I decided - heck, I get to make up the rules as I go along, as necessary!).  And, if you're showing the school how much the library is being used and loved, what's not to like about increased borrowing figures?

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I'll sum up the holiday borrowing for this term in another blog entry.  Have you tried any of our ideas?  How has it gone for you?

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Good ideas for school libraries: 14. Harmony Day 2009

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Our school always does something for Harmony Day - varies year to year.  I aim to involve the library.  Here's our foyer:

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Which, if you've read this blog before, you'll realise involves the same bookcase, but different books and a different banner.  This fabric is Ikea Gunilla ($9 per metre, not at all expensive).  I spotted it earlier in the year, and since the Harmony Day colour is orange, I snapped it up (the birds imply harmony of a kind, too).  The face-out books have some connection to Harmony Day; the orange spines are there to be orange, and for general browsing (maybe some kids will find something new, even though our choice is entirely and aribtrarily based on the orange spines! - we sometimes do other 'colour-themed' displays, as a different way to bring the attention of kids to various books and to support various themes).

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What you need: the banners are as described (with making instructions) last week, the books are from the bookshelves of the library and you can find a bunch of Harmony Day graphics and more on the Harmony Day website.

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Good ideas for school libraries: 6. Banners

Australia doesn't go nearly as berserk on Valentine's Day as some other places in the world - our school has a fundraiser run by Year 12 towards their formal, involving the delivery of a (well, an artificial) rose or bud on the day for a small fee, but there isn't the wholesale gotta-give-everybody-I-like/love-a-greeting that can be the norm elsewhere.

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Valentine's Day also falls near to the start of the Australian school year. As I was thinking about how to present the library foyer to welcome our students, new and old, I put the two together. You'll see a certain pinkness among the books, to keep the colour theme - we reefed out pink books to put here, and love stories that mightn't be pink. Oh, and I do remember some of our Twilightery regulars selecting favourites to display here as well, a lot of which seemed to have the very welcoming cover colour of black... (and in case you wonder, our returns box is the same colour all the time, it just happens to work in with this rather nicely).

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The banner, however, is a new idea. You can buy banners for school libraries, on various themes, from various suppliers. I've always caught my breath at the prices. And wondered about the whole, if-it's-up-too-long-will-they-still-see-it. Some stuff in libraries does stay the same longer term, like our flags, but other things are better being changeable.

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So. Minimum budget, maximum effect (well, as maximum as possible). As is often the case with school libraries, you need some size for impact.

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Quilting fabrics come in a 110cm width - about 40 inches. Prices range from $5/metre at the bargain table end on up to shading $30 or more at the not-bargain end. I worked out that one 3m length would work on two of our pillars, one by the door and one near the top of the main stairs. Cut it in half, lengthways, and if you spent $5/metre, for $15 you have two potential banners.  And repetition, which is more effective than a single banner.

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I have more library banners planned (watch this space!). For these, the fabric is a punk-influenced one, with swirly seventies heads (so fresh and modern, unless you remember them from the seventies!) with lovely pink skull and crossbones (I was avoiding Valentine cliche roses, I figured the kids would rather have something with a bit of attitude, and from the feedback, I guessed right). I don't plan to add applique if I can help it, but the heart seemed worth doing for these. 

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I do want to avoid adding text, as that can look clunky and needs time to get right/straight/even/sewn; I want, if I can, to have the mood/meaning set by the fabric.  That way, it's a simple hemming/sewing job, not elaborate.

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There are a bazillion themed quilting fabrics. Try your local quilt shop, or chain stores like Spotlight or Lincraft, or take a squizz online at places like http://www.equilter.com/. There are so many pictorial/conversational fabrics, you'll hardly know where to start. Get the right fabric, and it can do the work without need for applique or anything more fancy than straight machine stitching. Achievable by anyone with a sewing machine.

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The idea here is to make several banners to hang through the year, to celebrate/mark various events/occasions. And next year, whip 'em out and give them another airing.  It's part of our goal of keeping the library a place where things change, where there's something different to see when you come in; having different bookmarks through the year is part of this game.  Anything to intrigue, engage, make 'em interested to come and see (I hope).

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What you need: enough fabric to hang in your longer space, allowing an extra 15in/40cm for top and bottom hems. I buy 3m as it's a tad more than enough for ours and a nice round number. Our hangers - two hooks to screw into the wall, the rod and ends - came from Ikea, for $2.95. (Product name is Irja). Neutral thread - ecru vanishes into most colours. General sewing supplies including a sewing machine and iron. Dowel rod of reasonable diameter to weight the bottom of the banners.

Using these hangers, I made the banners with tab tops rather than a casing. If you are using different hangers and can do a casing, it's a tad faster and easy too. Your call.

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The instructions are written assuming basic sewing knowledge - if you're not sure about something, check with one of your lovely home eccies, if you're in a high school, or someone else you know who can sew. This really is simple sewing, though, so give it a try... Takes me about half an hour per banner, what with pressing.  If you're not sure of your measurements, do the side hems and sew on the top hem and tabs, then hang your banner to get the length right. Maybe you could get some kids to help?

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How to: Across the WIDTH of your fabric, cut a 4in strip. Cut this into 4in squares. The way our banner hangers/hooks are set up, I've made three tab loops to hang the banner. Fold two opposite sides of each square over 1/4in and 1/4in again, press, sew down. With right sides together, sew the two raw edges together, then turn right side out. Press in half. You need three loops per banner, if you're doing it like ours.

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Cut the rest of the fabric in half along the LENGTH, to make two long pieces. Press in 1in on each side (I haven't bothered cutting off the selvedge edges) and then tuck in the raw edge to make a 1/2in doubled seam.  Sew these down. 

Press 4in over on the top of each banner, then tuck in the raw edge to create a 2in hem. Pin, for now. Pin three tabs across the top, one either end and one in the middle, with about 1in overlapping the top of the banner. Sew a rectangle, across the bottom hem, up the side, across the top (catching in the tabs) and down the other side.

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Screw the hooks to the wall, insert the hanging rod and hang your unhemmed banner. Mark where you want the bottom hem to be, then press each one up at this mark (our two banners are different lengths as the columns are different heights). Mark at 6 /12in further on from the bottom mark, then trim off excess fabric. Press over 1/4 in and sew along this seam. Press on the hem mark and pin up the hem.  I used a wideish hem for weight/effect on the bottom - a narrow hem would look skimpy, imho.

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Note: the way I've constructed the bottom hem allows for a dowel to give the banner structure/help it hang straight. I decided to make a pocket rather than a sleeve, so the rod wouldn't fall out and trip anyone.

Sew up either side of the banner hem. Sew along the top, leaving a 3-4in gap at one end of the hem, to allow for slipping a dowel rod in and out (I'm using the same rods, moving them from banner to banner as we change them over).

Cut your dowel to size, bung it in the hem pocket, hang your banner, and feel smug!

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Applique: cut out your shape in paper. Trace it (reversed if it's not symmetrical) onto the paper side of fusible webbing (eg. Vliesofix, only a few dollars per metre at any fabric store). Cut out the shape, iron it onto the WRONG side of your chosen fabric, peel off the paper and iron this in place on your banner. Sew around the edges - if you have a blanket stitch on your machine, that's good, but a straight stitch just inside the edge of the shape will do the trick.

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So. How do you like them? The kids did! And this was only the first banner idea. More to come!  I'll try to take some step by step photos of one being made for a future blog entry.

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One request: I've shared this original idea freely and hope you'll find it useful. If you do use it, or refer to it, or blog about it, please include a link back here to its original home on Skerricks to acknowledge its beginnings. Thanks! Ms.B.

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Valentine's Day Love Reading Sign

Valentine's Day sign from our school library.  A Ms B. original!

Halloween decorating

OK, so it's early to be thinking about Halloween decorating.  We did it last year, and the kids liked it.  So we'll have another go this year.

Oddly enough, Ikea's Christmas 2008 decorating included some colours which seemed more Halloween to me than Christmas - black, orange, green anyone?

So when I spotted these:

well, the black ones, on special for under $4 the pair (they're sturdy enough and 6in/15cm in diameter) I invested in a few.  The size they are means that even in the largish spaces a library can have, they will have some impact.  Here's the source of that image and their info page on the Ikea site.  Ours came from Homebush Bay/Rhodes Ikea in Sydney - they're in the As Is section.  But take a squizz at the Ikea nearest you.  Sooner rather than later.

I found a few other treasures there, which I'll blog about.  Lots of good ideas for inexpensive library decor/display/marketing with pizzazz.

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