Adorable baby mobiles! A do it yourself tutorial

Check out this adorable mobile I made for my son.  And you can see my adorable little guy while you're at it :)  Anyways, here is the train of thought that led me to this creation.  First of all, there are a million and one things to buy for a new baby and to me a mobile seemed like a want rather than a need so with prices at $40 a pop I decided to go without.  When my son started getting a little older and more alert I felt he really deserved a mobile so I decided to shell out the dough and started looking for one that would work with his co-sleeper.  Apparently there is no such thing so I set out to make my own and here is how you can do the same:

I am doing this tutorial for the owl mobile you see above but this can be done with ANY animal you would like.  My good friend Kerry made one with butterflies which was cool because she bent the wings up and made them 3-D.  What was also nice about hers is they didn't need any eyes or beaks like mine.

Supplies:

- Scrapbooking paper to match your nursery decor (I chose 10 different prints but Kerry made one with 5 different prints and just repeated each one twice).

- One sheet of paper with polka dots that would make good eyes

- One sheet of paper for beaks

- Glue

- 2 embroidery hoops (one large, one small)

- Wood stain if you do not like the color of your embroidery hoops (I stained mine an espresso brown)

- A sponge applicator

- Two spools of ribbon (one very thin and one a little thicker)

- Tape

- The internet and a printer

- A thumb tack to secure it to the ceiling

- An exacto knife or just a knife with a sharp point on the end

Steps:

1. After buying your supplies stain your embroidery hoops if you are going to (using your sponge applicator and following the instructions on your stain).  Set aside to dry.

2. Go onto google images and search for the animal you would like to use.  In this case I searched for  "Owl stencils."  Choose your favorite, print it, and cut it out.

3. Take one of your prints and fold the paper in half.  Use your sponge applicator to glue the two sides together.

4. Trace your stencil onto the paper and cut out your owl. It will be double sided and nice and smooth.

5. Repeat for each of your papers until you have 10 owls

6. Cut out 40 eyes from your polka dot paper

7. Cut out 20 beaks from your designated "beak paper"

8. Glue the beaks and eyes onto each side of all 10 owls

9. Use your exacto knife to cut a slit in the center of each owl

10. Using your thinner ribbon, poke a fairly long piece through the slit in each owl, tying a double knot to secure it.  Set owls aside.

11. Cut three very long (equal in length) pieces of your thicker ribbon and tie them equally spaced from each other onto your small embroidery hoop.  NOTE: If you would rather, you can also glue the ribbon to your embroidery hoops rather than tying it.

12. Bring the ribbons together and either braid them all the way up or tie knots every few inches to secure them together. 

13. Tack that part of the mobile to the ceiling. 

14. Tie 4 pieces of the thicker ribbon  (equally spaced) to the small embroidery hook that is now hanging from your ceiling. 

15. Tie the other ends of these ribbons to the larger embroidery hoop with however much distance you would like between the two.  I think mine are about 7 or 8 inches apart.

16. Break out your owls again and tie them at varying lengths to both embroidery hoops.  I tied 4 to the small hoop and 6 to the large hoop.

17. We had to put some tape around the ribbons on the top of each owl to keep them flat.  Kerry, who did the butterlies didn't need to do that because they looked good at an angle (lucky)

18. Hang above baby's bed, changing table, or wherever else it can be enjoyed :)

All my supplies only cost me $15.  Kerry's only cost her $11!  My son actually loves his mobile too much!  He wouldn't stop looking at it to fall asleep so I had to put it over the changing table instead :) Sometimes he is so content laying there and watching it I just let him stay there for 15 minutes or so (with close supervision of course :))