DIY Baby Mobile

I have been waiting to post about the baby mobile I made a week ago. I wanted it installed above the crib...but thus far it is still hanging in our dining room:)

I decided to use paper so it would be lightweight...and also because Michael's was having a sale on their scrapbook paper (6 for $1!). I picked out 6 of my favorite prints and also found some solid colors in my small stash at home.

Here is how I made my baby mobile:

First I decided how many circles I wanted. I used two embroidery hoops so the mobile would be fuller and decided I wanted about 40 circles for the biggest hoop and 24 circles for the smallest hoop. (Each string has 4 circles on it).

So, I cut out as many circles as I could get from each piece of scrapbook paper (16). Some of the papers I had were just one sided...so I needed two circles to put back to back. I ended up cutting out about 128 circles and had a few left over.

I started arranging the circles in a pattern that I liked and sewed them together on my sewing machine. I started with a long strand at the top and sewed through one circle, pulled the string out a few inches, and then sewed the next circle.

Here are all my circle strands for the first hoop all laid out:

I took the long thread at the top of each strand and wrapped it around the embroidery hoop a few times and tacked it with a little hot glue on the inside of the hoop. I repeated with the rest of the strands in even segments all the way around.

Once I had all my 10 strands on my large hoop, I repeated the whole process with the smaller hoop (this time 6 strands with 4 circles each).

I took clear beading string and tied the smaller hoop to the inside of the larger hoop. Then I tied two "handles" to the top of the largest loop so I could hang it from a hook in the ceiling. Lastly, I glued some brown ribbon to the outside of both hoops to cover my threads.

I think it makes for an interesting view for the baby...what do you think?

I love that the circles move softly all the time so it always looks different. Also, the yellow and brown papers are actually the same paper...just different colors on both sides so it makes for a fun change every time they move around.

The best part about this project was I used what I already had in my craft closet (minus the 6 papers I got for $1)...so woo-hoo for being resourceful!

Hmmm...maybe now we can actually move this thing upstairs and over the baby's crib within the next 7 weeks so he can enjoy it?

I'm linked to:

Tatertots and Jello

Sugar and Dots
Sew Much Ado