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Time to inspire and motivate your students or class with these 4 fun bulletin board ideas that are perfect for schools, classrooms, or libraries!
This post is sponsored byHobby Lobby.All opinions and ideas are my own.
Are you looking for unique, creative, and affordable ways to decorate a bulletin board? With a few simple supplies, you can transform a boring corkboard into a stunning display. In this post, you’ll learn how to design 4 custom bulletin board ideas. Most are budget friendly and I’m sure you’ll find a variety of decorating options perfect for your classroom, school, or library! Get ready to up your decorating game and impress your students with your one-of-a-kind bulletin board.
My mom works at a school and I begged her to let me decorate a bulletin board! And once the ideas start going- I ended up coming up with 4 fun ideas that I really wanted to make! So she took pity on me and let me go full creative on the boards at her school! So hopefully you will find some fun inspiration and ideas to create your own!
Where to get Bulletin Board Decoration and supplies
I was wandering the aisle of Hobby Lobby and came across a whole section devoted to classroom decor and bulletin board supplies. They even had colorful rugs! There were so many options and themes!
I honestly couldn’t believe how great the prices were! A pack of letters was $4.99 and it came with over 200 letters! I bought all the different fonts and colors because I thought they would be so fun to create happy birthday signs with! I shopped when this section was 40% off so I got them even cheaper! The amazing sales are one of my favorite things about Hobby Lobby!
I use these paper rolls all the time for colorful backdrops for my projects! I love all the colors and designs! (You can even catch a peek at the brick paper roll on my Harry Potter Easter baskets!)
How to put up bulletin board decorations
I’m going to go over each board design individually, but I assembled them all the same- STAPLES! I love how quick and easy staples are! And if something is crooked, you just pop it off and restaple it correctly!
I stapled the paper rolls on first as the background and added the cute border next. If you wanted a double border, you can just add some staples on the outer edge and then slide the other border underneath, and then stapled them both together! This yellow border had a scalloped edge so I just tucked it up underneath the squiggly border to create a straight edge! A lot of these borders were double sided so you could reuse these lots of different ways!
There were some items that I couldn’t staple through (like the giant pencil or the wood decals!) I did end up using my hot glue gun! Hobby Lobby has some sticky poster putty that would work as well!
Now it’s time to break down all 4 boards!
#1 Library-themed bulletin board
This bulletin board is an interactive one! The book spines are all blank and as kids read and come across their favorite books, they get to write the book names on the spine!
We created this bulletin board for a library, but it would be super cute to do in a classroom and keep track of all the books the kids read throughout the year!
Supplies for book bulletin board
- Book printable
- Wood grain border from Hobby Lobby (this one was double-sided and had a cute white-lined side)
- Rainbow cardstock pack from Hobby Lobby
- Wood decals (apple and globe)
- Cardboard plants from Hobby Lobby
- Stickers or bulletin board letters
I wish I would have kept track of how many pages of books we printed out! I know we started at around 8 pages but had to print off a bunch more! Our bulletin board is pretty big so it took a few books! I would probably guess 12-16 pages for a larger bulletin board!
How to assemble the Book themed bulletin Board
This one is the most time-consuming of the boards I created because you have to cut out each book, and then staple up each book! Nothing hard, but it does take some time!
We started with a dark backdrop since the books are really colorful. The wood grain border was just the perfect item to achieve the look of a bookshelf! We measured the books to make sure that the shelves were all spaced out and the book printables would fit.
This board could be left like this, and as kids read books, they can fill out the spin and then staple it up. But I wanted to have a finished bookshelf, so I stapled them all up and then the kids can just write their book titles right on the spin!
My main goal when adding books to the bulletin board was to vary the sizes and vary colors. I laid some down, propped some up, and even had a few falling over! There is no perfect way to do it! Just keep adding books until it looks nice and full!
I used the same scrapbook paper to create a little banner and then added the white stickers to spell out ‘our favorite books!’
As part of the book printables above, there is a printable to help encourage the kids to fill out the books!
Here is the finished bookshelf! I love how colorful and fun this one is!
#2 Great minds grow here bulletin board idea
Hobby Lobby had so many cute plant-themed bulletin board supplies- So I knew I had to make a board that was mostly plants!
Supplies for Plant themed board
- Cactus table decor
- Bumble bees (there are some wood cutouts, stickers, or cardboard options)
- Ladybug stickers
- Alphabet stickers and cardboard popouts
- Green foam
- Pipe Cleaners
- Orange paper
- Green paper
- Hanging plants from the bulletin board section
Optional: You could use fake greenery and plant sprays as well.
How to assemble the plant board
I used green paper and green foam to create a few fake plants. Just cut out some leaf shapes and glue them all together. The green foam I glued around some fuzzy stems (I grew up calling them pipe cleaners!)
Wrapping the pipe cleaners all together created a hanging plant!
This bulletin board has a black and white paper backdrop with a yellow border! I used the leftover wood border from the book bulletin board to create a shelf for the plants to sit on!
And then I just stapled it all on! The big cactus cutouts were 3-D so I glued them into place so they popped off the wall. Then I created my own terra cotta pots using cardstock. I wanted them to pop out as well, so when I stapled them, I curved them a bit. You can see from the picture below that they don’t sit flush against the board! The plants I made were all 3 dimensional so I wanted my pots to be too!
I started with all my big plants and then added the smaller plants in between! We placed some ladybugs and bees around the board as well!
Then we added our phrase ‘Great minds grow here!’
Here are some other fun “plant” inspired phrases you could use:
- Great minds grow here
- Every day is a new chance to grow
- Let’s Root for each other
- Be “LEAF” in yourself
- Plant kindness and see what grows
- We all grow at different rates
- Pull Weeds, Plant dreams.
- Stay sharp (This one would be cute with some cactus themed)
This bulletin board is in the gym- with no windows! So it’s hard to get a good photo of it! But it’s so cute in person! It’s my daughter’s favorite one!
Bulletin Board Ideas #3: Be a Friend
My kids are obsessed with friendship bracelets- so I thought it would be fun to incorporate giant friendship bracelets to remind the students to be kind and to be a friend!
Supplies to make Friendship bulletin board
Everything is from Hobby Lobby except for the pool noodles!
- Big Wood beads
- Big Chunky Yarn
- Pool Noodle
- Easy letters (this colorful set was my favorite!)
- Circle cutout
- Rainbow border
- Iron-on letters (they have these in sticker form too but the Iron on letters were larger!)
- Rainbow ombre paper roll for backdrop
How to create a beaded bracelet
Hobby Lobby had quite a few wood beads, as well as some “toy wheels” that worked perfectly for a giant beaded bracelet! I put the beads on a skewer so I could rotate them as I painted them all different colors!
I wanted to add some “letter beads” So I painted some round circles white and added stickers to write out ‘Be kind!’
How to create a braided bracelet
Hobby Lobby has some fun chunky yarn in lots of cute colors! I ended up doubling each strand and then just doing a simple braid to create the bracelet look!
Pony Bead Bracelet
We had a few pool noodles laying around and thought they would make some perfect giant pony beads! A simple knife cut right through them and then I just strung them up with yarn!
Assembling the friendship bulletin board
I stapled up the backdrop, the border, and then the friendship bracelets.
The beads were the heaviest thing, so I added some staples on the ends and then a few spots along the bracelet to hold it into place! I made sure that I left enough string so I had something to use to hang up!
I love how colorful this board is! I’m a sucker for anything bright and I just love the reminder to be a friend!
Bulletin Board #4: Mistakes
I love this quote and think it’s a perfect message for a classroom! I added a few giant school supplies to frame in the words!
Supplies to make the school supplies board
- Squiggle border from Hobby Lobby (this one is double-sided and has the cutest dots!)
- Yellow polka dot border Hobby Lobby
- Cereal box (pink eraser)
- Small box (pencil sharpener)
- Shipping tube (pencil)
- Peach paper from Hobby Lobby (pencil shavings)
- yellow paint
I do not have very good pictures of how to make some of the supplies! I was just trying it out and wasn’t even sure if the pencil sharpener and crayon would look like a pencil sharpener and eraser! But basically, I just used the paper rolls to wrap each box like a present! I hand-lettered on the pink eraser and wrapped some cardboard in tin foil to create the sharpener.
Learn to make a giant pencil and paper shavings here!
I started by just adding white paper to the bulletin board and creating some blue lines and a red line to make it look like lined notebook paper!
I stapled on the phrase- I used a few different letter kits. Then I added on the giant school supplies! Since they are empty boxes, they are light But I couldn’t staple them on because they are too thick! This is where you can use a hot glue gun or poster putty! The downside of using hot glue is that it will rip the paper and you can’t reuse it when you take it off.
Hobby Lobby even has 12×12 lined notebook paper in the scrapbook section. So I crumbled that up to make it look like a piece of trash!
Favorite Bulletin Board?
So tell me- Which bulletin board is your favorite?
If you need more fun ideas- I create 10 paper party backdrops that would all be perfect on a bulletin board!
Too busy to get crafting today? No problem! Pin this post to remind yourself about this project later! Sharing my projects helps me reach more people, allowing me to continue sharing free content!
Creativity is essential in the classroom and bulletin boards are an excellent way to bring an extra dose of imagination into the school environment. Inspire your peers and students with some darling boards! Swing into Hobby Lobby and grab the supplies and create your own inspirational board!
This post is sponsored byHobby Lobby.All opinions and ideas are my own.
