Craft! Make your own journal April 18, 2008

Look what I made!

Since I haven’t blogged much about crafts recently, here’s the teen craft we did on Wednesday, a National Library Week special. As usual, the teens’ journals were more creative than mine, but I still like the one I made. I think I’ll use it as a reading journal, someplace to take notes as I read and for books I don’t blog about.

And some of the pages inside:

This is an easy, fun, and creative craft for teens. I only had to buy the chipboard for the covers and one pad of 12” x 12” scrapbooking cardstock expressly for this program, so it wasn’t too expensive, either. However, it does require some special equipment, namely a Zutter Bind-it-All machine to punch holes through the chipboard covers and paper we put inside, and to put everything together. If you know someone who scrapbooks, see if they have one you can borrow. My library’s children’s librarian borrowed the machine we used from a friend, and the wire for the binding was leftover from an adult program. I had additional scrapbooking paper leftover paper from previous programs; gluesticks, paper trimmers, and other supplies on hand; as well as die cuts (which someone donated to the library) and punches, which the teens always enjoy using to add decoration.

The price of this program will vary depending on what, and how much, you need to purchase. If you’re looking for a just plain cheap teen craft program, there’s always shrink art, which we did on Monday, again, but with an entirely different set of teens than last year’s NLW, all of whom (guys and girls) enjoyed it. Or try the marbled paper—Coolest. Craft. EVER.—or make your own sticker ideas. But I am definitely doing this journal program again, probably during Teen Read Week or a future National Library Week. Next time, though, I’ll get a teen volunteer to punch holes in the cardstock before the program.

Additional thoughts about this program:

• Buy 8½” x 11” chipboard. It’s a lot easier to cut a couple of sheets of 12” x 12” scrapbooking paper to fit the chipboard than to cut your interior pages to the dimensions of the chipboard.
• Use cardstock or heavy weight paper instead of regular 20 lb. paper for the interior pages so teens can also decorate the inside of their journal. Plus, I think it makes the journal seem a little more special.
• I’ve had teen guys at other papercraft programs, but none came to this one, other than the guy who was just there watching two female friends. In any case, there are a few scrapbook paper sets, like this one, that will appeal to teen guys and girls.
• Try it as a two-day program. One day for making the journals, the other day for a journaling/writing program.

So what else did folks do with teens for National Library Week?

Teen Read Week, October 14-20 September 19, 2007

Teen Read Week is in one month. Are you ready?

I’m still planning my events, but I think it’ll consist of:

• 2 games (name the author/title of the YA book based on the cover—which I’m stealing from someone either on YALSA-BK or YA-YAAC—plus a “Guess the Theme” display, in which I’ll display some books and teens who guess the theme correctly can win/enter to win an ARC or gift card, and which I’m hoping to turn into a monthly thing)
• the launch of our teen book group (crossing my fingers)
• one food program (make your own trail mix? something else? still trying to come up with something), and
• three crafts (two scrapbook-type crafts that I just have to make samples for, and the last a make-and-take, but I’m still trying to decide what to do. We did marble magnets as a make-and-take last year for TRW and origami during spring break, so maybe duct tape crafts?).

If we still had a movie license, I’d show a funny movie, but since I decided to let the license expire, that’s one more program I need to come up with.

Yes, yes, I know the theme is LOL @ Your Library, but sometimes I think themes make it too hard. We try to be clever and fit our programming to the theme (or try to think of a clever name for the program/theme) when the point, in my opinion, is really to have programs specifically for teens and to promote teen reading.

Anyway, Liz has a great post on the importance of TRW, and for more programming ideas, check out:
YALSA’s 2007 Teen Read Week page
TRW wiki
Alternative Teen Services
Zee Says

Plus, during the entire month of October, Readergirlz will feature an author chat every day as part of the 31 Flavorites Authors for Teens (via Little Willow). The list of authors is impressive, including Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, Ann Brashares, Ellen Hopkins, Sonya Sones (Sonya Sones! I can’t believe no one thought of her for the SBBT or WBBT. Ah, well, maybe next year), and more.

This is so cool! August 1, 2007

I’m having way too much fun with this tape transfer thing.

So, yes, this is totally going to be my next teen craft program. Here’s a really bad scan of my flyer.* I’m thinking each teen can photocopy two images/pages of their choice for free, then pay for their own copies if they want more.

And more Aranzi Aronzo love.

* “Cheapskate” sticker made from Aranzi Aronzo’s The Bad Book, “Don’t forget” sticker made from Microsoft clipart.

Updated 8/14/07: The teens thought this was cool, too. Yay! Even better, it drew a decent amount of guys.

Summer Reading challenge to myself June 4, 2007

I’ll be trying out a bingo game as part of my Summer Reading Program for the first time. By reading books that fall into various categories and getting a bingo, teens can win additional prizes. The game is hopefully easy enough for teens to win a couple more prizes without much effort, since one book can apply to multiple categories, but broad enough that if they want to win all five prizes, they’ll probably have to stretch themselves. Since I know that I should do some genre-stretching myself, I thought, “Hey, maybe I should try to do this, too.”

So, excluding the “Newspaper, Magazines, or Website” category and the three “Received Week ___ Prize” opportunites, because they’re pretty much gimmes, my goal is to cross off every one of these categories that may appear on the bingo cards between the start and end of the Summer Reading Program.

1. Hardcover book The Falconer’s Knot by Mary Hoffman
2. Paperback book Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess
3. Manga or graphic novel The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg
4. Not a manga or graphic novel Such a Pretty Girl
5. Part of a series Yakitate!! Japan vol. 3 by Takashi Hashiguchi
6. Not part of a series The Falconer’s Knot
7. Non-Fiction
8. Fantasy General Winston’s Daughter by Sharon Shinn
9. Mystery The Falconer’s Knot
10. Science fiction
11. Classic
12. Poetry
13. Romantic Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
14. Humorous/Funny
15. Horror/Scary/Ghost story
16. Historical fiction The Falconer’s Knot
17. Set outside the United States Yakitate!! Japan vol. 3
18. About or set in Hawaii
19. Story takes place during summer Rucker Park Setup by Paul Volponi
20. 2007 Teens’ Top Ten nominee
21. BBYA winner (any year)
22. Turned into TV show or movie
23. About music or a musician Beige by Cecil Castellucci
24. About sports or an athlete Rucker Park Setup
25. About an actor or actress

As with the teens, I’ll count one book toward multiple categories when applicable. However, while teens can pretty much list any book they want, I’ll limit myself to YA books that I haven’t read before. Summer Reading starts next week, so let’s see if I can do it.

Oops! Edited 7/26/07 to add: Summer Reading is over, and I didn’t cross off all the categories. Maybe next year.

Summer Reading and Volunteers May 30, 2007

I’ve finally committed myself to the programs we’ll be having at the library for summer reading.

1. Mystery Craft Day (Flat Marble Magnets and Bead Bookmarks)
2.  Make your own Mini-Zine
3. Summer Reading Finale (Game Day or glycerin soap making if I can get my act together)

I’ve conveniently arranged for my teen volunteers to be around for these programs.  I already have quite a few teens who are interested in volunteering during the summer.  My volunteers will also be helping out with our children’s craft programs.  Having volunteers is fun.  It’s like having a quasi-teen advisory group.