I actually started this mobile before I was pregnant with Toddler Girl.  I was just in the mood to make a mobile (or so I told my husband…) and I finished while pregnant but before the nursery was set up, so it lived in our living room for a while.  I think mobiles are pretty fun for any room in the house!  This project is a bit time consuming, but quite easy.  Our nursery is light and airy with lots of juicy pops of colour, so I used a lot of colours in my mobile, but it’s easy enough to match to your nursery decor.

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Supplies:

– A mobile frame –  You could make your own out of doweling but I had a photo mobile (like this one from kikkerland) and I love how it moves.

– 2 sizes of circle cutters or punches – I used these from Creative Memories

– A stack of magazines

– Neutral roll of wrapping paper – The rolled paper gives the fun curve to the circles (my husband says they look like Pringles, and therefore make him hungry).  I picked mine up ages ago and it looks handmade but is lightweight.  You can get some basic solid paper from Paper Source.

– White embroidery floss – Separate it so that you’re working with a single strand.

Directions:

1) Cut out many many circles of paper in two sizes.  I used a lot of magazines and cut bold coloured circles for mine.  I had a lot of fun doing this part, but I’m slighty crazy.

2) Take a long piece of thread (longer than you want your mobile section to be) and thread your needle with a good knot at the end.  Randomly select paper circles and pierce them with the needle pushing them down through the thread to make your stack of paper circles.  I pierced some in the center, to hang perfectly straight, and some a bit off center to add more texture to the mobile.  To control the spacing, make a knot in the thread where you want the circle to sit before you thread it on.  Be gentle as it’s easy to push the paper over the knot, which will make its hole too big to sit nicely on its knot.  I like having a little circle of colour at the very bottom and then a big neutral circle above it.  This seemed prettiest from below, which is how the baby will be looking at it!  When I used magazine paper, I would put two matching circles back to back so that it would look pretty from all angles.

3) When you’ve completed all your sections, clip them to the mobile frame!  I made my middle two sections longer than the rest for prettiness.

4) Hang somewhere the baby can’t reach it.  And make sure to move it higher or the baby lower when they start standing…these photos were taken before Toddler Girl managed to shorten a couple sections of the mobile.

I hope you enjoy your mobile as much as we enjoy ours!  They turn and sway beautifully in the slightest breeze.