April Showers Bring May Flowers- Let's Party!



 1. Spring Flower, 2. Spring flower, 3. First Spring Flowers, 4. Blooms & buds, 5. Spring Flower, 6. spring flowers, 7. Spring flowers, 8. Spring Flowers, 9. Spring Flowers

At last, at the risk of jinxing the entire East Coast by saying so, we seem to have cracked through to spring. I know, such a mild winter and here I am complaining. But really, let's get on with it already.

To celebrate the new season, we recently had a Spring Picnic for the patients where I work. It's a chance to bring in a delicious catered meal, decorate a bit, play music, sing songs, do the polka- whatever the occasion calls for. OK, no polka this month but isn't that a good idea for a theme? Polka music, 'kraut, Halupki, kielbasa, pierogi, dumplings, mmmmm. I'm not Polish but WOW with the food.

ANYWAY- we went with an April Showers Bring May Flowers theme  for the decorations for our spring picnic. I frequently use paper for my decorations because it is budget friendly and the possibilities of what you can do are endless. So, just wanted to show you what I did, in case you need cheap raindrops for a spring party some day.

April showers, hanging from the ceiling, watering the May flowers on the tables. I'll show you how I made the paper raindrops. Blue construction paper. How cheap is that?

I cut the paper crosswise on the large size sheets into about an inch and a half wide strips. Using dental floss and a large needle, string the first strip onto your line and carefully tie it off, making sure you don't tighten so hard that it rips into the paper. This drop will be your bottom drop.

For the next drop, line up the ends and use your finger to hold the middle of the bend.

Don't actually fold or crease the paper. Bring your floss up through the center and past the two ends, which should be aligned with each other. Push the needle through the strip at the end and carefully tie the floss so that it hold the strip closed. Continue on, staggering the length between the drops.

Now of course I was hoping for some sparkle and I did find foam board that has a layer of holographic paper on one side. Sometimes you can find wrapping paper or gift bags in this holographic paper and chances are good I would have used that instead but we do what we can with what we find for cheap. Next I cut strips from the foam board just wider than the circle template I wanted to use.









I had to carefully peel the top layer of paper off and learned that cutting smaller strips works better as the top plastic-y layer wanted to separate.



Next, I used the fanciest template I could find to draw circles of the holographic strips.




 

 

   

 

Then accordion-fold the paper and cut out several at a time.



  

Use a glue stick to sandwich the floss between two holographic circles, again staggering your spacing on the floss, maybe even place two between a raindrop here and there. Finally, I tied the end of the floss to a large paper clip and hung them in the tracks of the ceiling tiles. Thank goodness for ceiling tiles.

Sorry the colors are kind of wonky but what can you expect with an iphone camera, florescent lights, and minimal time to fool around with the images.

 

I decided there was not enough sparkle  to meet my bling needs so I added some holographic circles to a few of the raindrops.

The image below shows how I staggered the drops and dots. The raindrop strands were about 2 feet in length so that they would hang above the tables far enough so that people standing around the tables could see across the room. Important in this healthcare setting, keeping an eye on the patients and all.

Wanna see the rain showers in action? (15 seconds of your time)

Stunning videography, isn't it? Griping action. Well, still not enough sparkle for my tastes but that's the time and materials I had so that's how it ended up. But you can see how the light and movement make the drops twinkle. This could be cute for a Baby Shower- use glitter paper and maybe make the dots in pink or blue, if you know which one is appropriate, or whatever theme  is happening at the shower. We had a blues party once- rain would have been fun.

I've painted a sun on the windows every January for years, just to bring in some sun in the blah-dead of winter. It usually stays through until just before Halloween. No rainy days on my parade!

 

I made a variety of one of my other favorite stand-bys, tissue paper flowers, to go with a mix of fresh flowers and some gorgeous gladiolous flowers I found at the Dollar Tree. Then I hung some huge tissue flowers around the room, made with 14 sheets of tissue each. The one on the right at the table by itself has a ribbon stem and some construction paper leaves added to simulate a big honkin' tall flower.

So there you go- ready for May flowers. If you make the raindrops for a baby shower, I would love to see photos.


And today's butterfly picture ...

Cabbage White, one of the first butterflies in spring. These tough little beauties

will even sometimes come out on warm days in mid-winter.
Photo by Hans Christoph Kappel via BBC Nature

Thanks for floating by today. Next time we'll finish up our birthstone tour with the long overdue Turquoise. And then on to .....