Mabey She Made It

You know the saying–“April showers bring May flowers.” And now that it’s April, it’s time to welcome the rain and hopefully bring on lots of beautiful blooms!

A lot of you have probably seen this decor available at Target –I know it’s been popular.

I love how fresh it is and the ombre look. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to create something inspired by it. At first, I was going to do hearts and a red background for Valentine’s Day–didn’t happen. Then I thought I’d do shamrocks, but who am I kidding–I don’t decorate for St. Patrick’s Day. Then one day I was driving, and I noticed how the blue sky did this same thing–darker at the horizon and lighter the further up I looked. There were a few fluffy clouds in the sky, and I knew I’d found the perfect mix of inspiration–April Showers.

Let’s make one!

First, I created a cute little fluffy cloud using my Silhouette and repeated it on an 8″ x 10″ piece of white card stock. You can download the file to use with your Silhouette here.

I decided I wanted some raindrops, so I took a silver paint marker, and added a little detail to a few clouds and added a  silver lining to a few others…cute!

Next, take some watercolor paper and paint (or ink) and wash the entire piece starting dark at the bottom, and working the color all the way up for a nice ombre look. Keep working the color until it looks how you want it. Then let it dry.

I originally created an 8″ x 10″ print, but once I got it into the frame, I didn’t like the look (it was the frame I didn’t like) so I cut it down to an 8″ x 8″ mat with a 9″ x 9″ watercolored background for a different frame–much better! And I really like the 1/2″ of color around the clouds.

To get the shadow box look, stack dimensional tape around the edges of the watercolor paper, then adhered the cloud cutout page on top. Then just pop it into a glassless frame (or shadow box) and hang it up!

It’s simple, yet trendy and it’s something fun enough I’d display it year round, which I love! Now come on little April showers, do your thing!