Decorate your home with a pretty umbrella

What say you on the issue below?

This umbrella may not shield you from sunshine or rain but it will hang prettily in your home.

PARTS of this mobile are made from toilet rolls. Work with the curvature of the rolls to piece them together into the two-tiered umbrellas. Paint them in bright splashes of colours for a child’s room. Decorate the segments with simple lines or glue them with cut-outs from wrapping paper.

Paint the rings of the spheres in the same colour scheme as that of the umbrellas.

You need:

13 toilet rolls

Plastic bottle cap – 3cm wide

Thin florist wires – each 36cm long

Scissors and cutter

Pliers

Piercing tool

Pencil and ruler

Old ballpoint pen (no ink)

UHU glue

Acrylic paints-red, blue, yellow, orange and green

Thick black marker

Brushes

Making the mobile

1. Cut a toilet roll open along the length. Pull the sides to spread out the roll.

2. Mark a point midway along the top edge of the roll. Draw a line to join the point to the corners at the bottom edge. Score the line with the old ballpoint pen.

3. Measure and draw a 0.8cm border from the scored lines. Cut along the borders to obtain a triangle. Fold along the scored lines to turn the borders downwards. Bend the toilet roll piece back to regain its curvature.

4. Follow steps 1 to 3 to make another four curved triangles. Apply glue to the borders of the triangles and join them together into a circle with a small hole in the middle. This is the umbrella of the mobile.

5. Cut off 2.5cm from a toilet roll. Follow steps 1 to 3 to prepare a smaller curved triangle.

Make another three curved triangles in the same way.

6. Glue the borders of the four triangles together to join them into one piece with a small hole in the middle. This is the top umbrella of the mobile.

7. Paint each section of the umbrellas in a different colour. Paint the underside, too. If you like, draw lines or patterns on the umbrellas with the black marker.

8. Paint four toilet rolls, each in different colours, i.e. red, blue, yellow and green. Dry them thoroughly. Flatten them a little and cut each roll into eight equal parts, crosswise.

9. Paint the inside and edges of each ring following its colour on the outside.

Slip a red toilet roll ring over a blue ring, crossing them at a slanted angle. Apply glue to stick them together. Place and glue a yellow ring over the crossed rings. Allow the glue to set. Then shape the rings to puff them up into spheres.

Make nine spheres from the rings.

10. Pierce holes at the ends of one ring of a sphere. Do the same for three spheres. Cut a short length of wire, twist a small loop at one end and pass the wire through the hole from inside out. Attach the other end to another sphere and twist a small loop. Join the four spheres together in a row.

11. Attach the remaining five spheres to the corners of the big umbrella with short lengths of wire.

12. Cut open a toilet roll ring into two. Coil and glue each strip tightly. Flatten them and pierce holes into each piece.

13. Twist a loop at the end of a thin florist wire and pass the wire into the hole on top of the row of spheres. Pull up and twist a small loop at about 6cm. Attach a coiled piece of toilet roll ring into the wire. Attach the big umbrella to the wire.

14. Make a small loop about 3cm on the wire. Attach the other coiled piece of toilet roll ring into the wire. Attach the small top umbrella to the wire.

15. Pierce a hole in the middle of the plastic bottle cap. Attach it into the wire at the top of the umbrella. Bend the wire to form a big loop. Twist the end to secure it for hanging.