Mobiles

• This is a simple project even very young children can do, with a bit of help. Cut out four or five pieces of posterboard with a pair of scissors. Make them roughly the same size, but of different shapes. Paint them bright blue with water paint or markers and allow to dry. Apply drops of glue randomly to the painted posterboard, then stretch cotton balls across the posterboard. For cumulus clouds, the cotton balls can be bunched together to form big, fluffy clouds; for cirrus clouds, they can be stretch to a thin, wispy look. Rain clouds can be represented by painting the bottoms with gray or black paint, while contrails can be represented with two perpendicular streaks of cotton. A few holes and some string will allow you to attach your "clouds" to a dowel for a colorful mobile.
  
  

Brooches

• Brooches are fun and easy projects for cloud-based crafts. Place two pieces of blue felt together and cut out a four-leaf clover shape to suggest a cloud. Place a small ball of batting on one piece of felt and use a felting needle to spread it out to entirely cover the clover shape. Apply glue to both pieces of felt and make a sandwich with the batting. After the glue dries, place a large daub of glue on one piece of felt, and push a safety pin into the glue, with the pin side facing out. Glue cotton ball to the other side of the brooch and use the felting needle to puff it up slightly. Again, manipulating the cotton can produce any one of the four types of cloud.
  
  

Edible Clouds

• Gelatin and whipped cream can quickly be turned into a delicious cloud dessert. Simply make blue gelatin according to the package directions, adding ice instead of cold water at the end to speed up the process. Stir until it sets, then spoon into glasses, layering with whipped cream as you go. The whipped cream can be shaped as you wish to imitate various kinds of clouds, and a bit of food dye can represent rain clouds or the red clouds of a sunset.
  
  

Cloud Windows

• A cloudy sky as seen from a window can be made with some construction paper, glue and markers. Simply cut cloud shapes from white construction paper, then use markers to decorate them to suggest rain clouds or the reflection of a setting sun. Glue them to a piece of blue construction paper. Cut some thin pieces of gray construction paper to suggest the crosspieces of a window and glue them over both clouds and sky to form a window.