Rainy Day Umbrella Craft

As we head into spring, the rains have come and I’m trying my best to look upon them with joy. After all, they are necessary to prepare the earth for rebirth.

The flip side to this is all the gray and rainy days.

If your kids are driving you crazy because they are bored and don’t want to play outside in the rain, here’s a fun project to do together.

RAINY DAY UMBRELLAS

You will need:

Cardstock or colored paper
Scissors and glue (we used thick craft glue)
Pipe cleaners
String

Cut 9-10 circles out of your paper. It’s easy to make a circle pattern. We used the top of a bowl. You could also use a jar lid for smaller umbrellas.

Fold your circles in half, matching the edges.

Fold them in half again.

Once they are all folded, glue each one shut on the seam ONLY. We found it easier to use a toothpick to get the glue into the seam.

When you have all of them glued, stack them up and use chip clips to hold them shut. You may need to make a few piles so that the clips will fit.

Let the glue dry (perfect time to read a book about rain or look up scripture verses that mention rain).

Glue your individual “triangles” together (only on the outside of the fold seams). Make sure to line up all your cut edges.

After you have all of your triangles glued into a stack, put a heavy book on top and let them dry for a bit. Then, take the top and bottom fold ends and glue them together to form a circle. Use a clip to hold the cut ends together while they dry. Push a pipe cleaner through the center, leaving a tail on both sides.

When dry, fold the pipe cleaner into a loop on top and a hook on the bottom. Trim as needed. Here’s an example of what the pipe cleaner should look like:

If desired, cut out raindrop shapes and glue them to pieces of thread or string. Glue the ends of the string onto your umbrella (or use a needle and poke the thread into the umbrella and knot the top of the string).