Cloud 9: Making Clouds from Paper Lanterns

I never imagined how easy it would be to make home-made clouds that look like the real thing.

You can make one in a couple of hours. I used a hot glue gun with large hot glue sticks, and attached about 4 round paper lanterns together. You can cut small holes on either side if you want them to fit together a little more snuggly and have a large whole between each chamber so that you can easily string lights inside the entire cloud. But I like to keep them a little less like one blob and more like separate billows of the same cloud. I was able to poke my finger through the sides after they were glued. Use lots of glue in a circle about the circumference of an apple, and then old them together until the glue cools.

Then I put more circles of hot glue on one lantern on a time and held a handful of Poly-fil against the glue spots. bit by bit, you cover the cloud, going back to check on bald spots. I also used quilt batting to cover the wholes in the bottom and some of the cracks before adding Poly-fil stuffing to the top of the batting. The stuffing sticks better to the paper lantern than the batting though. Just kind of pull it over the holes to hide the fact that these are really lanterns. I made sure that the hanging loops were at the top, and plan on using fishing line to hang it from the ceiling for our Enchantment Under the Stars prom. I have some LED lights to help them glow pink or purple. The more varied the sizes of lanterns the better. Keep the small ones on top and sides. 

It takes about 10 large glue sticks and a little more than half a pound of Polyfil for one cloud. I made about six and still half half of my 13.5 box of stuffing left. (It was $35 a box).

Whether you are decorating a bedroom, or for baby shower or bridal shower. These clouds can create a really special ambiance that makes you feel like you are on cloud 9!

 

Painting a Night Sky Back Drop

We've got some fun events coming up at my school. A spring concert, and a prom, with the theme: Enchantment under the stars. A starry & cloudy night sky killed two birds with one stone, just like last year when the prom theme was Enchanted Forrest, and the spring program was Into the Woods. I love working smarter, so I can work harder on other projects. We started with a blue background, starting with the darkest blue at the top, and adding lighter blue to the paint pan, until it was a sky blue at the bottom. A couple of my students got a kick out of giving our stars of the silver screen (from our Hooray for Hollywood prom) some wacky features during the process.

As soon as that dried, I had two more students add the stars. The more the better. They wanted to space them all evenly, so I had to remind them to think in clusters and make some bigger than the others. Most of the stars were 6-8 feet off the ground so we tilted the sets down on a chair to make it more accessible.

When it comes to making clouds, it's easy to over-do it. Start with darker values. Just subtly shift the value from the background. And I used a brush that was about 4 inches wide to start.  Then I started adding lighter colors until there was some areas of white, usually around the edges and tops of clouds using a one inch brush. It would make more sense to have a moon reflecting light back onto the clouds, but I'm saving a big moon for another photo op. I like to use an almost dry brush and scrub it on in circular motions so that it doesn't come off as a flat, coloring-book-style cloud. It didn't take long, and it is gratifying to knock out what is essentially a 32 foot mural in a day.