The summer heat is upon us here in sunny California! That can only mean one thing-time to get out the fans! No rain means no rainbows! Boo! No can do!

If you live in a hot climate with no air conditioning, you probably own a fan. We are fans of the fan and have several in the house. We use a fan by the wood burning stove to circulate the warm air throughout the house in the winter. In the summer we all have fans going in our rooms-either to pull the cool air from outside into the house, or to pull warm air out.

Tangent ahead... bear with me! We also use a fan in the greenhouse that is connected to a thermostat to come on when the inside temperature reaches 70 degrees (F). It's solar powered and is hooked to a gate latch on the door that releases the door at the same time. Someday the old man will make an instructable and show you how he did it. That's fancy. Real fancy like. This is lowkey and very do-able. This is simple! If you have a fan and some colorful supplies, and a 'get it' attitude, you are good to go!

Step 1: Prep Your Fan

Make sure your fan is the type that the grill can be easily removed. Manufacturers have gotten wiser over the years and make ones now that can be removed for easy cleaning. Check for screws that hold the grill on and use a screwdriver to remove screws and carefully take off the grill.

One of the brands of fans I have is called Patton. It's a black metal fan. They made it with little toggle latches you flip and the grill pops right off! I love it! The box fan we have is made by Lasko. It has easily accessible Phillips head screws that can be removed to open the front grill. We take our fans serious around here and would be less comfortable without them! Not a paid endorsement. If I can gush on a little more- the Lasko fan we have has a thermostat that switches itself off at night when the room reaches a cool enough temperature. We're high class stylin' now!

The greatest benefit to removing the grill is the ability to clean and maintain your fan in optimal running condition. And, most important, to make the fan into flying blades of rainbow colors!

Wipe the dust from the blades on both sides. Once you have done that, you are ready to decorate your fan blades! Make sure the fan is unplugged.

Step 2: All the Colors

Pick which materials you want to use to color your fan blades. Fan blades can be decorated in a few different ways. You can use acrylic paints, paper, tape, or vinyl. If you don't have colored paper, you can take a pattern of the fan blade and color it in and attach. You could probably even use some of the decorated duck tapes they make nowadays.

If you are using paint to decorate your fan blades, put a coat of white paint on first to give your colors a light background to pop out bright on! Use masking tape or a piece of well placed cardboard or foil to mask your rainbow stripes as you paint them. Start with the inner edge of the blades and work your way out distributing the colors across the blades in a pleasing way. Let each color dry between coats. Repeat same pattern for each fan blade as you go around with each color.

If you are using paper, you will need tape or glue to stick it to the blades. Fold a piece of plain paper completely over a blade to give you a template to cut the colored papers from. Cut template with a 1/2 inch overlap of fold. Tape or glue all the rainbow pieces together as one piece. Now attach this one piece to the fan blade. Repeat for as many blades you want covered.

Alternately, you can take a plain, white paper template and color in the stripes with pens, crayons or paints and tape or glue it directly to the blade.

I used strips of narrow cut rainbow color vinyl for my blades. It was leftovers from a bigger project that I had put aside for a little project. You can find adhesive vinyl online at Etsy and Ebay or at your local art and craft stores.

Step 3: Cool Operator

If you want to take your fan a step further into the next level of decorating, draw out a figure that you can attach so the figure 'flies' when the fan is turned on. We made a Rainbow Dash, My Little Pony, because, Rainbows! Don't leave pony on fan unattended. This is included as a temporary amusement.

Draw your figure out on a folded line of paper. Color both sides. Attach a piece of string sandwiched and glued thru the middle. Trim around the image as desired. Pull the string thru the grill at the top of the fan grill, overlap it on itself and staple together. I was informed by my in house artist that I attached the string (we used ribbon) to the wrong end and the pony was supposed to be flying into the breeze! The results are the same either way! Breezy Rainbow Pony Radness!

When your fan turns on, your figure will fly. Add curling ribbon, tissue paper or Mylar streamers to up the party vibe! We also tried a version where we stapled Rainbow Dash to a party hat that we cut the tip out of to let the breeze thru. Your imagination is your only limitation!

Stay cool this summer and enjoy the rainbow!