Photography by Donovan Roberts Witmer
Every woman from 25 to 65 knows what a joy and a responsibility it can be to throw a shower for a close friend or relative. If you’re planning a party for that mid-summer bride or putting together a celebration for the mom-to-be, let us take “find décor inspiration” off of your to-do list. Because of the varied color palette, this adorable raincloud decoration can be used over and over for bridal showers of any theme or baby showers for either gender. Plus, it can be hung wherever you’d like to insert some whimsy, be it over the gift table, by the cake or near the guest of honor.
What you’ll need:
white rectangular tissue paper thin wire, like floral wire scissors white string or yarn pencil shades of pink, orange, yellow and blue cardstock hot glue glue gun
Steps:
1. To make the two large clouds, take a stack of eight sheets of tissue paper and place it on a table so that the shorter side is facing you and the longer side is facing to your right and left. Fold the bottom edges of the stack upwards, so that the fold is about one inch from the bottom of the paper. Flip the pile over and repeat the fold until you reach the top of the paper, creating an accordion shape.
2. Snip off a few inches of thin wire. Take the folded paper and pinch the middle of it so that the edges fan out like a bowtie. Take your thin wire and wrap it where your fingers are pinching to secure the bowtie shape.
3. Flatten the edges where your folded paper fans out, so that it again resembles the accordion shape from step one. Holding the edges together, cut a semicircle shape through all of the layers. Repeat on the opposite side.
4. Fan out the edges so that the stack again resembles a bowtie, this time with scalloped edges. On each side of the bowtie, carefully separate one layer from stack, pulling it up and towards the middle. Repeat with three more layers. Flip over and repeat with remaining layers, so the finished product resembles a round cloud.
5. For the three smaller clouds, start with a stack of four sheets of tissue paper and cut it in half horizontally, so that you have two stacks of rectangles similar in proportion to the original sheets. Place the two stacks of four sheets together to create eight layers, and then repeat steps one through four.
6. Once you have finished all of the clouds, figure out how much string you will need. This will largely depend on where you will hang the decoration and how low you want it to be. Remember that the smaller clouds will hang lower than the larger clouds. Allow about 5 feet of string for the clouds and raindrops. Cut one piece of string for each cloud and tie it around the center of the cloud, where the wire is secured. Leave a length on one side for hanging and a length on the other side for the raindrops.
7. Create a raindrop template and trace this on your colored cardstock. Cut out each raindrop. Use nine raindrops for each cloud, for a total of 45 raindrops. Note: If you plan to have the drops hanging rather than secured to a wall, and you don’t want to see the hot glue on the backs of the drops as they spin, repeat this step so that you have 90 raindrops total.
8. Hot glue the rain drops to the string below the cloud, leaving a few inches between each drop. If desired, glue another raindrop on the back of each so that the string and hot glue does not show.
9. Hang at desired heights and get your party on!
