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  • Activities and Competitions

    Organizing activities and competitions can be fun but there are times you need some fresh input. In the activity drop-down menu below, you can find heaps of ideas. What about a Paper Plane Competition?

  • Activities

  • TIP: Think inside the hat!

    Party hats, store-bought or made from pages of an old book or scrap paper are very useful for a display. You can staple the hat to the board as a container for whatever you want to showcase. Or hang them in front of the board filled with little notes, poems, toy animals or whatever takes your fancy

  • TIP: Staple at an angle

    Removing old display items will be much easier when you hold the stapler at an angle when you tack items to the board. The staples will stick out at one side - perfect to get hold of and pull them out when you change displays.

  • TIP: Use a glue gun

    Glue guns are the most fantastic tools for creating displays. You can attach all sorts of materials like hard plastic, metal, fabric and everything else you can think off. Be careful with your fingers (blow - blow) the glue is very hot and you easily get blisters

  • TIP: Create a 3D effect!

    Create a 3D effect by hanging objects in front of the display board, like fish in a Sea Life display or lanterns in a Spring or Garden display.

  • TIP: Don’t overdue it!

    Too much text, images or books on display too close together distract the eye. It all becomes a blur. Each object needs its own space. Think of a shop window that is more than full with appliances, you can’t distinguish one object from the other, while carefully placed objects attract the attention.

creativiTREE

Posted on December 23rd, 2018 by Anita

You would think that a display about creativity would be the easiest thing to do. But how do you display flax weaving, metalwork, mosaics and other types of creative artworks in a cohesive way? The closer I got to the preparation day the more agitated I became.

I HAD NO IDEA!!! Absolutely no clue. But during a sleepless night, I got out my paper and pencil and started brainstorming. What – how – where….

Of course, the size and shape of your display board dictates for the most part what you can do. I still use the base of the dolphins (see Sea-Life display)

I didn’t want to get rid of it because it provides so much extra display space. The half-round shape of the top part gave me the idea of a tree. And from then on it was easy. The branches of the tree are designed to hang lovely artwork on and anything else that fits the theme.

Grass and flowers make it a real summer display and collecting arty things for the board became a joyful undertaking.

I bought some little things at a cheap shop but most of it I got from my own cabinet.

My partner’s daughter is very good at Origami and she made some lovely Origami flowers, birds, and butterflies. They are gorgeous!

What you need:

  • Blue wrapping paper for the background. I used two different types. The normal wrapping paper for the bottom part of the board and a white clouded one for the top part.
  • Green card symbolizing grass
  • Mosaic images (Google images) printed on A3 and laminated for letters creativiTREE
  • Image of the bark of a tree (Google images) printed on A3 and laminated (I used the image of one piece of bark for the whole tree, just cutting and pasting)
  • Little pieces of artwork such as mosaics, beadwork, origami, flax kites, driftwood, little boxes, metalwork, wind chimes, you name it and you can use it.

What to do:

Cover the background with blue wrapping paper.
Use the A3 laminated images of the tree bark to create a tree. You can create any form you like. Just cut and paste different parts of the bark and connect it. The curly twigs at the end of the branches need a bit more work but you can do the weeks before D-Day.
Cut small slices down three-quarters of the green card to symbolize waving grass.
Stick a couple of windmills behind the grass to symbolize flowers.

From laminated images of mosaics, I made the letters for creativiTREE. Staple these to the board

Now you can start adorning the tree. Staple the artworks to the board. I used a glue gun to paste the colored beads to the twigs as if the tree is flowering.

The origami butterflies and birds were placed prominently on the trunk and board. It looks as if they could take off at any moment. The bunches of origami flowers stick out of the grass as reminders of a happy occasion.

This is such a happy display. Not difficult to make and a joy of color and shapes.

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  • An idea for your next display? Wishful thinking

    Keep on the lookout for unusual, funny or cartoon-like images in magazines, on internet or in the daily paper like the image above. Cut or copy them and store them for when you need inspiration.
    One of those unusual images can be the basis for a great display. You don't need to do the whole design yourself.

  • Or what about this one? Free will, an illusion?

  • TIP: Use old umbrellas as a display unit!

    Old umbrellas without the fabric but with a good frame are fantastic as a display item You can hang little objects like birds, light bulbs, little books and art objects from the frame. Fluffy fabric draped over the frame will give it an extra elegance.... let your imagination run wild and experiment!

  • TIP: Keep an action list

    I am not particularly good at it myself - I'm an ad hoc person - but it is one of my recommendations when I give display workshops. It helps you keeping track of what you're going to do. Make a rough sketch of how the display will look like and write down what materials and tools you're going to need Create a time-line / checklist: This week copying and laminating - Next week: buy or beg materials - Two weeks: covering display boxes with matching paper - Three weeks: collect books matching the display etc. till you reach D-day and start getting nervous....

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