Soak Up Summer Reading Series: Once Upon A Cloud

It is week 5 of my Soak up Summer Reading Series! I am so excited to introduce my friend Misha from A Lovely Design. Over on her blog, she is all about design and creates the most beautiful parties. She is sharing with us an adorable book just perfect for little girls! The craft she creates to go along with the book is so much fun and really beautiful! Enjoy friends!

Once Upon A Cloud

What’s more fun this summer than choosing a favorite book with your kids and creating a fun craft to go along with it! The book we chose is called Once Upon A Cloud written by Claire Keane. It’s an adorable story about a sweet little girl named Celeste and she is trying so hard to think of the perfect gift to give her Mom. During the night she goes on a magical journey to the sky and plays with the stars and the moon. As dawn approaches and the sun sheds its magical light on the earth she sees the world and all its beauty and decides the perfect gift for her Mom was right there all along! It’s a beautiful bouquet of flowers picked from the meadow and tied together with a ribbon from her own hair! It’s a great lesson to teach children that not all gifts need to come from the store and that some of the best gifts are right in our own backyards!

Now let’s get started with the craft!

Materials you will need:

Tissue paper sheets
green pipe cleaners
a length of ribbon
scissors

First, decide on the colors of flowers you would like to make and stack about 5-6 sheets together and fold them up accordion style in about 1 inch sections.

Next, cut them into about 6-8″ lengths and cut the ends of those lengths into different shapes. This will give each flower a different look.

Now, wrap a pipe cleaner around the middle but be sure to leave a long length as the flower’s stem.

Finally, carefully pull each sheet up towards the center on one side and then the other. (You may need to get the flower started for the smaller children.) If you have ever used tissue poms it is exactly the same process!

My daughter and I had a blast creating this magical bouquet! And just like in the book, my daughter took the pretty red ribbon from her hair and we tied it to the bouquet for the finishing touch!