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Door Tags / Door Decs / Doortags

Here are some of the suggestions you have submitted:

• Wonder Woman: I am a huge Wonder Woman fan and was the RA for the all women's building. When my residents arrived on move in day, the building was decorated with Wonder Woman poster and doortags. We adopted Wonder Women as our theme and had an excellent year!
  
  Pick your favorite picture of Wonder Woman (or other female comic), and make color copies. Because of my small budget, I made one for each room and cut out yellow stars to write residents' names on.
  
  Go wild. Adapt the character. Pick Superman for an all men hall.
  Jacqueline Naffaa -Sonoma State University -   naffaa@sonoma.edu
  
• Photo Door Tags
  
• What's in a name? Door Tags
  
• Holiday Gift Door Tags
  
• Simple yet elegant door tags: My second year on staff I lived on a floor of upper-class women.  I didn't know how the "cartoon-y" door tags that go over well on freshman floors would go over with my junior and senior residents, plus the night before they arrived I still hadn't made the tags, so I was on a time crunch. 
  
  What you do is get a piece of parchment paper (I think mine was from Wal-Mart).  Write the resident's name in calligraphy (if you know how to do it) or just really nice handwriting... you could even do this on the computer.  Tear the edges on the parchment paper to give it a "aged" look (it also looks nice if you burn the edges, but I didn't want to set off my fire alarm).  Then mount it on a piece of black construction paper with double-stick tape and voila!  If you're really feeling crafty, you can even add decorations (I used tiny grapevine wreaths wrapped in raffia ribbon with dried flowers tucked in).  It doesn't take long to do and it's really "classy", if you will.
  
  Instructions/Things Needed:
  black construction paper
  parchment paper
  nice lettering (hand or computer)
  decorations as you see fit
  Jen - Moravian College
  
• I don't want to take credit, but one of the floors in my building made all the girls on the floor fairy door tags and all the boys goblins - it turned out really cute and was funny when the resident matched the description of their goblin or fairy!
  -- Look in a book for pictures and characters.
  -- Brian Froud is a good author to look for.
  
• No matter what the age or mentality, everyone LOVES cheesy 80's cartoons! So I made door decs with cartoon themes like the Smurfs, Snorks, Hello Kittie... they thought they were really cool. Another idea that everyone liked is using foreign characters. I found a web site that would take a name, and translate it phonetically into kanji characters. I put those at the bottom of the decoration, and put an Asian dragon on top. They took some time, but EVERYONE kept theirs up!! - Kim - Ferris State University
  
  
• My co-RA and I made ransom note door tags... get a bunch of free magazines (ad ones, old ones, dead magazines from the hall post-office area, etc...), cut out a bunch of letters, and put them together into your residents' names. 
  
  Another pair of RAs on our staff made movie themed door decs... they made a bunch of movie clapboards out of paper (photocopy them), then wrote "college life, starring <resident>" on each of hem... at the bottom they wrote take 1 for frosh, take 2 for sophomores, etc...  --University of Oregon
• Since my RD makes us do door tags every month I have learned to go with the seasons.  ie in Sept. we had move in and our theme was something like the highway to School...I it was roads and stuff so I made little cars...for October I did trick o treaters and the residents names went on the bags. for November I did leaves and pumpkins, all cut out of paper of course. December I did snowmen and snowflakes, Jan. new years Feb. Valentines day.  Although door tags every month or 3 weeks is a hassle it helped me learn those resident's names who never come out of their room.
• For second semester, I decided to go easy on the door decs.  I came up with paper dolls.  I found that making these was not only easy, but it cut my time in half.  Each room on my floor has 4 residents, so all I needed to do was fold the paper over 4 times, draw a pattern (in different stances/poses for each room), and cut!  voila!  Petra - U of Northern Colorado
• Door decs made out of old records with the person's name was painted on them
• Cut out comic strips... then glued them on a piece of colored paper and wrote the student's name on them. (continue theme w/bulletin boards and signs, etc.
• I used drawings of shoes for one of my bulletin boards entitled "Gettin' in Step"...that would work for door decs too.
• When I was an RA...I colored fish...it took forever...but they were cute!
• Monopoly Theme
• Animals
• Computers
• Have all the RAs in the building make a door tag for not only their residents, but all the other RAs in the building and the HD.  Then each RA has a bunch of door tags on their door, so residents recognize their room.
• Clip art cartoon pictures of people doing funny stuff with names and room numbers.
• I drew girls and cut them out and had the girls names and room numbers on the t-shirt of the girls. The girls were drawn in different positions with different clothes.
• A bowl of chicken soup with a quote from chicken soup for the soul with the words: "Chicken soup for 'name of person' " at the top. It was the floor theme and I had a big bowl of chicken soup on the bulletin board with lots of quotes from the book.
• I used publisher to make floor money. It had our floor number in place of the $ amount. And then it said on the sides "In 9 south we trust". 9 SOUTH is the name of my floor. At the bottom it had the names.
• I got a whole bunch of free CD's -- all from an AOL display in the local tower.  I pasted each of the CD's on sheets of black
  construction, decorated the backgrounds, and put everyone's name on the CD's. This worked well, and everyone seemed to like them. The only problem was that some people were curious about what the CD was, and would tear it down and look.
  However, at the end of the first semester, about half of them were still up, which are pretty good marks for a guy floor.
• I went to a House of Blues Concert, and they were giving away these free posters. On them was a painting of a blues saxophonist, done in neon colors on black. I seized the opportunity, grabbed enough for each door on the floor. I cut
  out the sax player, then made a bunch of musical notes. I made the musical notes coming out of the saxophone, and put people's names on the notes. Everyone loved these.
• "Welcome to Paradise". We made this the title of our big welcome bulletin board, and put everyone's names in the sea on our landscape picture (complete with a desert island, palm trees, and sea creatures). For doortags, our sister floor RA had sea
  creatures, and I made... Hawaiian Shirts. They were fun. I found real Hawaiian Shirt fabric, put a contact paper backing on them, and cut out 50 tiny Hawaiian Shirts. I made little suns to put behind them, and the people's names went on the suns. It worked out well; most of them are still up now (for me, the true testament ot guy's floor's doortags are their staying power, and how long people leave them up).
• Wipe boards:
  A cheap easy way to make wipe boards for doors! Use Clear or colored contact paper to cover paper designed in an  original way with the residents  names on them. I used pictures of notebooks for the names.
  Instructions/Things Needed:
  Colored or clear contact paper Designs with residents names ~you cover the designs/names with the contact paper and stick it to the doors of the rooms! And attach a wipe marker if budget fits!
• Cheap Dry-Erase Board!
  This one is great, and is very flexible.  You can go get some "fancy" paper from the store (I used clouds and printed airplanes on them) that will go along with your floor's theme. (Mine was "sittin' on top of the world") Then, print or write your resident's names on them, staple transparencies to the top, and tape them to the door around all four edges.  If you are given the budget for it, buy dry erase pens and attach them with string.  (If you don't attach them, they'll probably get stolen)
• Cartoon Characters
  Last semester I did the Simpsons and the guys on my floor had a good time of it, coloring and altering the mug shots of the major characters. **Also, Looney Toons, South Park
• Door Decorations
  Hey! You can never go wrong with football jerseys and helmets! Especially at a BIG football school, like Ohio State!  Sports always works well!
• Ideas:
  I thought I would share my door tag ideas. Last semester I did Sesame Street Characters and made a big sign that said welcome to Napa Street (enter your building name before street). The residents got a kick out of the tags. This semester I did smiley faces. It brightened up the doors and gave everyone a good feeling about coming back after winter break.
  
  Instructions/Things Needed:
  Pictures of Characters from Coloring Books
  Creative Notepads and just contact paper them
• Palm Trees and Hershey's Kisses
  
  For my doortags first semester I made palm trees the size of the doors and coconuts. I put the resident's name on the coconuts.
  
  Second semester I made hershey's kisses for all of the doors. I put the resident's name on the flag coming out of the hershey kiss.
  
  Instructions/Things Needed:
  butcher paper for palm trees, coconuts and the white background. You also need some sort of spray glue and a marker to write the names down.
  The Hershey kisses are much easier. All you need is poster board to cut the kiss out of, foil, white ribbon (for the flags) and a light blue pen for the names.
  All you have to do is cut out the kiss, cover it with foil, glue the ribbon on and write their name with a blue pen.
• Cut-outs of computers and then on the monitor you could put www._________.com and fill in the blank with the persons name
• Lava lamps:
  to make the lava lamps you need to do things in sections:
  first you would make your base.....take black or gray paper and figure out the perfect size for your door. im trying to think of the exact measurements but the the top line is the shortest then you would draw the two side lines out on an angle and then connect...hopefully you are catching on.... then you take white paper and cut it as wide as your base into an oval... next you go back to the color you used for the base and make the top....
  finally, you get different colors and cut them out in various shapes to fit on the white paper and then glue everything together. if you look at a lava lamp then you should be fine.
• I was on a co-ed floor and my theme was "think tank".  I made copies of "The thinker" on neon colored paper, then titled it "The (name of resident)"  Then I used blown up copies with Lightbulbs above their heads to write the rules, 1 was for upcoming events, 1 was for floor meeetings and info., then I did my bulletin board with lots of little "thinkers and lightbulbs" as the background.  They stayed up most of the semester.
  
• Card Door Decs
  Description:
  
  My fiance' lived on a floor last year where the RA took old football cards and put the names of the residents over the name of the athlete.  I thought it was really clever.  I won't take credit for it, but I think it was well received, and if I werent an RA in the GIRLS dorm I may have done something similar. 
  
  Instructions/Things Needed:
  
  Sports cards
  Names typed and pasted
  
• International Hall Door dec's
  Description:
  
  I made copies of a world map and then put stars on the city and
  country where my residents were from.  Then I wrote out the city name and the resident's name.  This worked well on International Hall and I think it would do well on a floor where most everyone is American, too.
  
  Instructions/Things Needed:
  
  A picture of a map that is pretty clear
  Enough copies for every room on your hall
  Star stickers
  Markers
  
  Other Considerations:
  
  Color copies would have looked much nicer, but it would have cost me $100 for 40 residents!  So, I settled for paying $6 for black and white.
  
• Feet Door tags
  
  Name:    James Alackness
  School:  Marist College
  email:   Maristjaa@aol.com
  
  
  Description:
  
  I am in a freshman area on my campus.  I made signs that said "Stepping into Freshmen Year" and then cut out footprints and put them stepping on the wall.  They walked across the walls and doors and then on the ones that are on the doors I have the residents names written on them.  I have 50 residents 25 male 25 female and only a few have been taken down, though it has only been a couple of days.  The staff has all said how good it looks and the students have commented too.  I think that it was a hit. In conjunction I made paper to back my bulletin boards.  I got white paper and panted the bottom of my feet and walked across it with the school colors.
  
  Instructions/Things Needed:
  
  Construction paper
  Roll paper
  Paint
  
  
  
  
  

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