An affordable and easy project for baby’s room!

What would Baby #2’s room be without some crafty goodness from Mama? Due in early May, I have less than 10 weeks to go, so the pressure is ON! I have to get his room ready for him so it’s nice and cute and Stickelberry-like.

I made a mobile for Logan’s room the last time I was pregnant following this tutorial here that I found in Parents magazine, and while it did turn out cute, I found the process very awkward and had to re-do it several times to get it to hang right. Even still to this day the center hoop is off center and the whole thing is just slightly imbalanced. That bugs. The strands also fell off several times (thank goodness I didn’t hang it above the crib), so I ultimately re-attached each one using thick sticky dots. Here is a picture of Logan’s mobile – his room theme is Sock Monkeys!

So, I decided to come up with my own plan… for Baby #2’s room, the theme is a little more contemporary and simple, so I wanted a simplified mobile. Fewer stands, fewer circles…

I hit my local Michaels for the supplies and decided that instead of using the embroidery hoops, I would use a squared wooden dowel — well, two dowels, criss-crossed (I cut a long one in half).

I picked out the paper I wanted to use in my nursery room’s colors (White, Grey, Navy, Orange), and some jump rings and went home and got to work. Since I do have a decent selection of craft tools and had made one of these mobiles before, I already had some of the other basic supplies: 2″ hole punch, keychain ring, thin wire, exacto knife, thread, mini pliers.

Of course I had to throw in some bling — I just adore the silver glittered checkerboard card stock I found in the scrapbook paper aisle! The Navy has a nice sheen to it too – it’s quite beautiful.

I started typing up a summary of how I made this ting, but it was a little wordy…. so it’s better to explain with pictures! 🙂

I hope baby likes it!

DIY: Paper Mobile Tutorial

Supplies:

• Scrapbook Paper or Card stock — I used 1 12×12 piece for each color except the orange scrapbook paper and the silver glittery card stock. I used 2 pieces for those because they are not double sided. Depending on the colors/paper you choose, plan accordingly as you’ll need to punch out extra circles and glue them to the backs of the ones that aren’t double sided.
• Jump Rings — found in the jewelry aisle. Mine are 9mm and came in a package of 85 pieces. I have many leftover but I couldn’t find a smaller package.
• 1 Key Chain Ring — also in the jewelry aisle. I had a pack of them from other projects.
• Tape Runner– I used my favorite one, Elmers! You could also use regular glue, sticky dots or your other paper adhesive of choice.
• 36″ Squared wooden dowel/stick — these come in a variety of sizes. Choose one that suits your style!
• Thin Wire, Thread, Yarn, Shoelace… whatever you want to use to attached the dowels together, attach the strands to the dowels, and to hang from the center. This isn’t an exact science – be creative and use what works for you!
• Tools — 2″ hole punch, Exacto knife, pliers, hole punch (mine is 1/8″); again you don’t have to use the EXACT same tools as I do!

I measured the dowel and marked the halfway point (18″), then measured and marked where I wanted to hang the strands (every 3″), marking an ‘x’ where the two dowels would cross each other.

I used the exacto knife to cut the dowel (the wood is very thin and pliable).

I then used the exacto knife to notch out the center of the dowels where they would cross so they fit together like a puzzle piece.

I made a groove at each marking for the strands as well so that the wire I used to secure them would sit nicely and not move.

Next, I put the dowels together and used a piece of the wire to secure the two pieces …my piece was about 8″.

Now on to the fun part — punching circles!

Woops – be careful not to do this 🙂

*ONE IMPORTANT NOTE: If you use scrapbook paper or single-sided card stock, depending on your color scheme or preference, you may want to punch two circles for each one that isn’t double sided — otherwise it will be white. That may or may not matter to you… it did to me so I used a tape runner (Elmer’s is my favorite) to glue two circles together for the orange and silver circles.

 

Once you have all your circles punched out, play around with your pattern or sequence for your strands. You can have them all the same (important if you’re doing a rainbow or ombre theme!), but I decided to have one dowel with one pattern, and the other with a different pattern, so it was mixed up a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for some more fun… punching holes!

My hole punch is 1/8″ – you can use whatever size you like, but make sure not to go too far in to the circle, otherwise your jump ring won’t have enough room. I went in about 1/8″ from each end of the circle. Have I mentioned I LOVE anything that glitters?

*CRAFT BONUS: Confetti!

Now comes the labor intensive part. Attaching the jump rings. It isn’t difficult, it just takes time. You can use pliers if you need to, but I found it was quicker and easier to just use my fingers – I found the jump rings pretty easy to bend and put that together.

Link up all of your strands – be sure to put one at the very top of each strand, and no need to put one at the bottom!

Now, to attach the strands to the mobile – cut a piece of wire for each strand. I cut mine about 1/2″ in length.

Next, simply loop the wire through the top jump ring, and wrap it around the dowel, nesting it into the groove that you carved for it earlier. Repeat for each strand.

Almost finished! This part I forgot to take a picture of (sorry!) but you can see how it is put together in the next picture…

Take the keychain ring and connect it to the crossed wire in the center of the two dowels. Then connect a jump ring to the keychain ring, so you have the dowels hanging from the two rings. Take your string or ribbon or fishing line or shoelace (whatever you’re using) and loop it through the jump ring. This will allow your mobile to spin nicely and keep it from turning lopsided.

I tied my string in a knot and hung it from one of these bad boys..And here it is, hanging in the nursery (to be revealed later!)

That’s it! Not too bad, right? Definitely worth the effort for a super cute homemade mobile for your little one..

XOXO, D

 

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