The things I’m making for Annabel’s birthday party dovetail nicely with the things I want to put in her big girl rainbow room. I’m leaving the walls purple, but adding pops and touches of color throughout the room to tie everything together. I’m planning on hanging this rainbow wreath on the front door to greet Annabel’s party guests, but after the party it will hang somewhere in her room. It would also work great for St. Patrick’s Day!
Sheer 1.5-inch ribbon (I used organdy) in the ROY G BIV colors (I swapped in pink and white for indigo)
12-inch white foam wreath
Greening pins or dressmaker pins
Cotton balls
Scissors
Hot glue gun (not pictured)
I wanted to evenly distribute my colors, so I had to figure out the circumference of my wreath. I measured it with a fabric tape measure when I suddenly remembered that the diameter times Pi equals the circumference. So in this case, 12 x 3.14 = 37.68…and that’s what I measured. I rounded up to 38, then divided that by eight (the amount of colors I had). This showed me that each color needed to take up about 4.75 inches to be even. Math, you so crazy.
Use a greening pin or dressmaker pin to anchor down one end of the ribbon. Start wrapping, overlapping the ribbon over itself as you go.
Before you finish one color, start the next color and wrap it a few times.
Overlap your first color a bit over your second color, creating an ombre effect. Secure the end of the ribbon with a greening pin (occasionally the greening pins wouldn’t go through multiple layers of fabric, so I used dressmaker pins in those instances).
Continue wrapping and pinning until you’ve used all of your colors! You could definitely leave it like this, but I felt like the clouds needed a little something extra.
I used my hot glue gun to dot glue all over the white ribbon.
I then pressed white cotton balls all over the glue, creating a fluffy, three-dimensional cloud.
So cheerful! You can hang this right on a wreath hook, or tie a ribbon around the top and hook it onto a nail, etc.
For St. Patrick’s Day, you can attach a pot of gold with a glue gun or greening pin (I got this plastic pot at Joann Fabrics, and those are plastic coins inside of it).
Or if you want to make it 20% cooler, you can add a My Little Pony figure – but remember, only Pegasus ponies can walk on clouds. This is how it’s going to look for Annabel’s birthday party.
Any questions, let me know. Have fun!
TANIA says:
What a great idea!! Love it!!
Alison says:
Very cute! How did you make the purple handle/hanging piece shown on the last picture? Did you add it after the wreath was completed?
Heather says:
Yes, I just tied a ribbon onto it so I could hang it on a wreath hook!
Jaime Maynard says:
OMG are rainbows and unicorns just a thing with almost 5 year olds these days? Evangeline is having a rainbow art party just mere weeks? after Annabel’s just happen to check in and see this and it made me giggle haha. Cool.
Jen says:
Awww, look at you doing math, and you didn’t even have to call me! (I love it, the wreath I mean, now make one for Kate)
Heather says:
OMG YOU READ SOMETHING
Lupe says:
This is so cool! My oldest loves My Little Pony. I can’t wait to see more of your ideas so I can borrow some for her birthday.
Lupe says:
Oh, and I totally got the “20% cooler” reference. : )
Holly says:
For some reason I have to tilt my head so that the clouds are on the bottom of the wreath. Am I OCD? If I make it, I will probably turn it 90degrees to the left
sam b. says:
20% cooler! Ha!
Denise says:
Love it with the MLP. And so would my 10 and 14 yr. old. Very cute.
Paula R. (fka preTzel) says:
That’s gorgeous and great for her room!
Jean says:
I had a rainbow room when I was a kid. Another decoration you can add is a cloud pillow with colored ribbons that hang down. It is very easy to make. I will try to find a link to what I am talking about.
Jean says:
It looked like this. http://prudentbaby.com/2012/03/baby-kid/cloud-ribbon-rainbow-travel-pillow But mine looked more “grown” than that one. Mine had satin-y material in light purple. The ribbons were thinner in width. And there were less ribbons on mine so they were spaced a bit farther apart. Also, the top loop was not as thick in width as the one in the picture. But the picture gives a general idea to what I was referring to.
Heather says:
That’s so cute! I made a small raincloud toy for James, I could just make that one bigger and with rainbow ribbons instead of blue. Thanks for the great idea!
Lisa says:
You could make a Mardi Gras one too!