Clay Rainbows
In case you haven't noticed, rainbows are everywhere these days and I. Am. Loving. It. They're expressions of joy and happiness and fun and rejoicing and promise, and I love all of those things. Like, a lot.
After hanging two floating shelves (which I found in my basement, holler!!) in Sunny's nursery several weeks ago, I just felt like they were missing something. And like most good ideas, it hit me while in the shower one afternoon, "Rainbows! Clay rainbows. Just one. No, three! No! A family of four rainbows. Our family in RAINBOWS!!" 😂
I adore DIY projects that are easy to make yet also have a ton of personality and character. And this little project checks all of those boxes. Air drying clay that you can pick up on your next Target run, by the way, is the perfect medium for this project because it's incredibly easy to use. Think PlayDoh for grownups that air dries into cool things.
SUPPLIES NEEDED
Crayola Air Dry Clay
White Acrylic Paint (not pictured)
3-5 Acrylic paints in coordinating colors
Paintbrush
Step One: Open your air dry clay and divide into the number of rainbows you want. (I made four, one for each member of our family.) I knew, roughly, how large I wanted my biggest rainbow to be, so I started with that one. I shaped the biggest ball of clay into a rough circle and then flattened the bottom by pushing it against the counter, and then rounded out the rest to look like a rainbow. I did this for all four balls of clay, with each following one getting smaller in size. Not one of my four rainbows is the same shape or perfectly smooth. You can see my fingerprints and some rough edges on them, and I am okay with that.
Step Two: Let rainbows air dry completely. This will vary based on their size and thickness, but generally, 2-3 days will do the trick. I let my rainbows dry for four days because I wanted to be on the safe side, and wasn't in a hurry.
Step Three: Paint all sides of your rainbows white, and let dry completely. One coat of paint was enough for me because it covered some of the little cracks and creases and brightened them up.
Step Four: Choose a color of paint and add your first stripe. Let dry. And repeat. Over and over and over. I rotated all of the colors on my rainbows to be different for each person. TJ's started with blue as the largest stripe, whereas mine was yellow, June's was pink, and Sunny's was lavender.
Step Five: Once your little rainbow family is completely dry, add them to your favorite bookshelf, windowsill or ledge for a little bit of joy and happiness.
Be sure tag me on Instagram if you make these because I'd love to see how your rainbows turn out! @walkinlove @brookecourtney
