I first featured this DIY project and image on my old blog Wedding High many moons ago. I came across it when I was dreaming of having a baby and planning a nursery. That old blog is long since retired but the post and all subsequent links to it are still super popular and so in the interest of giving the people what they want and not having people just bounce off a broken link I’m re-adding it to my new blog. It’s still a fabulous image, not my own, full credit to the fabulous photographer, Alexis Mire, and a very dreamy DIY.
The original blog post is about 10 years old, back in a time I was infertile and my dreaming of a baby and a nursery to plan was just that, a pipe dream. Fast forward 10 years, and with some amazing medical intervention, I am now mother to 2 gorgeous girls [Riley & Sophia] in heaven and one healthy, almost 10-month-old son, Indiana James. I’ve planned many nurseries in my head and three nurseries in serious detail for my gorgeous babies. Indiana James’ is the only one that was realised and would you believe it, clouds feature strongly in his decor. An irony that is not lost on me here as I type this. If you’d like to check out his nursery and the makeover our dab and deary spare bedroom underwent in anticipation of this arrival you can watch that video here.
But I know you’re not here for a nursery make over, that’s me just being cheeky and capatilising on your visit to my blog. Lets get down to business.
How to DIY a Cloud Light
You will need:
- 1 Paper Lantern [look for ones with LED lights already attached if you can]
- Cotton Batting [ this is the folded sheets of ‘cotton wool type material’]
- Hot Glue Gun
- Glue Sticks
- LED Lights [WHITE CORD Battery operated are best] – you’ll need these if your lantern doesn’t already have them.
- Cat Gut Wire/String or Strong Fish Wire
Couple of notes on the ‘ingredients’.
- The amount of batting you’ll need is really down to the size of your lantern, this also applies to the number of glue sticks.
- Cotton Wool Balls will not work for this project. You need Cotton Batting. Some people have had success with some types of Pillow Stuffing too.
- Battery Operated Lights make this DIY more versatile, in that it can be hung or moved anywhere.
- You might like to also consider LED Lights with a variety of colours, this helps you to create different ambiances with your Cloud Light. [The remote control options are best to make on/off and changing colour easiest.]
- You can combine up to 3 smallish paper lanterns together to create a larger more impressive cloud if you can only find small lantern options.
- While I’ve seen companies blog about this and leave a list of things you can buy from them [totaling over €150] you can easily get all the above in the likes of Dealz, Poundland, or the Dollar Tree type shops too and spend just a few euro/pounds/dollars the overall cost is down to what you spend on the items.
How to assemble you DIY Cloud Light
- Heat up your hot glue gun.
- Open out your paper lantern.
- Insert/ Arrange your LED Lights inside the lantern. Secure the battery pack to an easily accessible spot with either the hot glue or catgut wire/fishing wire. The wire is best if you have to swap on batteries… or glue it in such a way you can access the battery unit. [It’s hard to be more specific than that as there are too many paper lantern options to consider. [You’ll have to do this multiple times if you’ve decided to use multiple lanterns.]
- Open your cotton batting and start to tease it apart from itself slightly. You are not trying to break it apart but ideally have large portions of continuous fluffiness. [One continuous piece would make clean gluing a challenge so best to leave it in large fluffy portions.]
- [In the event you are using multiple lanterns hot glue them together in the pattern/ shape you want.]
- Now begin to hot glue your cotton batting to the lantern. Cover the entire lantern with the cotton batting.
- Attach some catgut wire/ fishing wire to the metal part of the lantern. This is how/ where you will hang the lantern up. Make it as long or as short as you desire.
- Viola, you are now ready to display your gorgeous DIY Cloud Light!
Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions but if memory serves I do think I have covered everything! And do send me photos of your creations when they’re done!
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