Get your bulletin boards back-to-school ready with a few simple tips. Soon you will have bold and beautiful boards that will keep your students inspired all year long. Let's start with a clean slate. Take off all of the old paper and borders for a fresh start.
Use a neutral print like the weathered wood fadeless paper. If you are lucky enough to have walls you can staple into simply add a few staples to secure. If you have cement walls give the mavalus tape a try. It holds secure and won't ruin your walls! I like to layer my patterns for a bolder look. To compliment the weathered wood I chose a bold print like the black and white polka dot. This looks great on the smaller board too. It helps to give an illusion that the board is bigger than it really is.
I continue that illusion by layering my border trim and stapling to the outside edge of the small board. I wanted to add some color so I used a smaller black and white polka dotted trim and mixed it with the woodland trees border. This pairing helps to keep it from looking too Christmas like, yet adds a fun pop of color. I pulled out the green by adding colorful fans along the top of the board. I love to mix the solid fans with the chevron and polka dotted fans. I will staple these as I fan them out providing a secure hold. Once assembled I like to take 3 or 4 and gently staple them together on the edges. This helps to make them more secure. Since we are not permitted to hang from the ceiling I make sure to staple tissue fans to the tops of my bulletin boards. This provides the same whimsical look as the hanging paper fans yet abides by our school's policies.
By adding fans to the top of my board I can fake that my board is taller than it really is. Since this will be a bulletin board for my reading corner I wanted something that was colorful and bold yet didn't have to be changed throughout the year. I decided I would add some inspirational posters to complete the look. Download the posters I used HERE. I just downloaded and printed the designs on construction paper and used the fadeless weathered wood paper to create a frame around the posters. This can easily be created using a paper cutter. Just trim paper 1 to 2 inches larger than your print. No need for expensive heavy frames!
And just like that your bulletin board is ready to go! You now have a fun, custom board ready to inspire those excited readers and keep them ready for new adventures throughout the year! See how I made a matching reading corner to go along with my camping theme HERE.
