Channel your inner Poe with an easy-to-make shoulder raven. Not included (and probably best avoided): a cask of amontillado.

You’ll need:

• 1 toilet paper tube
• Black construction paper
• Black drinking straw or beads
• Hole punch
• 1 piece of elastic beading cord
• Scissors, tape, and glue for construction

The raven is basically a toilet paper tube, wrapped in black construction paper, with two holes punched in the front and back. A loop of elastic beading cord threads through the holes and keeps the bird in place on your shoulder.

When the tube and cord are prepped, use more black construction paper to add all the fun details! Here’s my “deluxe” raven with lots of black ruffled layers, twisteez wire feet, and a tri-fold beak.

However! Here’s a simpler version with a simple tab-and-fold beak and construction paper feet. Also, notice the eyes on both birds? Those are little snippets of black drinking straw. To attach the eyes, dip one side of the straw snippet in a dollop of white glue, then press it on the bird’s face. The raven is now ready for some tapping at your chamber door.

Many thanks to the Scheide Library for serving as the location for our photo shoot. Part of Princeton University’s Rare Books and Special Collections Department, the Scheide Library is home to priceless literary treasures, including the first printed book, Beethoven’s musical sketchbook, and a lengthy autograph speech by Abraham Lincoln from 1856!