Well, it turns out I am now the bulletin board queen at my school. Not a title I sought, Just sayin’….
We have these gigantic hallway boards and it takes some work to cover them, but I think I got this one right! Take a look!
I had this idea from a Pinterest pin. It was a board using the balloons and little house from the movie “Up”. Well, I tried to make the little house of paper. Epic failure. It was hopelessly not dimensional and quite ugly. So, I went to Hobby Lobby to get brick patterned scrapbook paper.
I found the paper I wanted and some corrugated brown scrapbook paper and I was going to make a new house from that, but you know, when you are in Hobby Lobby you have to wander around. And then I found myself staring at these pressed board houses. So, I thought, “Wow! That will save some time!” #not
Step-by-Step:
I wanted the cardboard house to be a brick house, so here we go!
1- Gathered supplies, which included the little house, brick paper, and press on letters.
2- Paint the front of the house with mod podge (which is really just white glue with a fancy name).
3- Press the brick paper into place and smooth it out. 4- Repeat this until the little house is wrapped in brick paper.
Now, I did not paint glue on top of the scrapbook paper which would be the normal next step with mod podge, but I didn’t want to ruin it by getting the paper too wet. That is sometimes what happens with glue (think of kids and interactive notebooks….)
Next step-
5- Use a razor blade knife to cut the windows and door openings. The holes were already there and I just cut them open and folded the paper to the inside, spread on a little glue, and used my fingers to smooth it all out.
(Pretty impressive for an OCD person that doesn’t like to get her hands dirty, I know!)
6-7 – Use strips of brick paper to wrap the chimney and then glue the top onto the little house. I also added a title to the house with the stick on letters. I just took white paper, stuck on the letters, glued that to a black background and glued it to the front of the house. Since it is the name of my school I left it out of the photos!
8- Staple up cloud background paper onto the bulletin board. I actually purchased this cloud paper, so it was super easy. You could just use blue and glue up some white paper or smear it with chalk. Add the black rectangles as an imitation skyline. I just cut the paper into many shapes and stapled it up!
Balloons
9- Add balloons. I purchased this pack of balloons already made to save time. The balloons have all of the teacher’s names in my school, but you can’t see them. I attached strings to each balloon (you can see the strings hanging in the photo) and then gathered the strings into a bunch and stapled that in place.
10- The house was added with hot glue and duck tape. The words have since been changed to say “Are You UP for New Adventures?” and I also added “Let’s Do It!” I know! It’s too cute. You can see why I am now Queen of Bulletin Boards.
(By the way, I spent $6 on the brick paper and little house! Those items were 50% the day I went shopping!)
Now, the biggest question is- was the time I spent doing this worth it? Yes, it was. The board was really cute and a lot of students stopped to find their teacher’s name. It made a very eye-catching hallway display.
Unfortunately, someone bumped the little house one day and it ripped off, tearing some of the paper. I stapled the paper back in place and replaced the house with a flat construction paper house. If you decide to try this, I would go with a flat house!
Wow! You are the bulletin board queen! I switched from the classroom to ESL and I think my biggest relief is not having to do bulletin boards. I used to be so stressed out about them!
My Bright Blue House