Spring showers, May flowers!

Inspired by the recent posts by MammaSorriso and MammAGiochiaMo, we decided that a mini rain stick was exactly the project that we needed for the weekend. We were a little worried about using nails with our 3 year old so we decided to try out another way to achieve the same effect.

In an attempt to liven up the gray and rainy Sunday afternoon, we dedicated our rain stick to the beautiful flowers that benefit from all this rain! Colored tissue paper flowers were the extra touch that our rain stick needed!

In order the make the project really easy, we opted for the readily accessible inner cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels but any cardboard tube will do! Measure out around a meter of aluminum foil and crush it into a cylinder. Wrap the foil cylinder around the handle of broom to create a coil and then carefully remove it from the broom handle.

Insert the aluminum into the tube. Fix the ends of the foil cyclinder to the tube using hot glue.

Make the covers for the ends of the tube by tracing the opening on a piece of cardstock. Add ears to the circle and cut out. Gently bend the ears so that it can be attached to the end of the tube using a hot glue. Fill with a couple of hand fulls of rice. Close the other end of the tube.

Paint the tube green using washable paint. Let dry. Reinforce the end covers of the tube with clear packing tape.

Now for the fun part! Draw flowers and center pieces on tissue paper. We used orange, green, purple and fuscia. Cut out a piece of contact paper big enough to wrap around your tube two times. Peel back half of the backing and add the flowers. Peel back the remaining paper and wrap around the tube.