I've had so much fun the past few weeks getting the baby girl's nursery ready. We've got an amazing lavender and grey theme that is girly without being too juvenile.
One of my favorite projects is her mobile. I spent a lot of time looking on Etsy for inspiration, and found a few that I really liked, including this ombre butterfly mobile and this hot air balloon mobile. Alas, I would want the $272 version, which seemed a bit ridiculous to pay for a mobile. I decided to go rogue and create my own with a whopping $24 in craft supplies and tools. The final product is gorgeous and looks great over her crib.
To create this mobile, you'll need:
- 3 12x12 sheets of 4 different colored crafting paper. (This is a total of 12 sheets of crafting paper.) I used variations of purple to a shimmery white to work with our color scheme.
- 1 punch. I chose butterflies and used a Martha Stewart all over punch.
- Fishing line or monofilament - at least 225 feet
- Neutral pH Liquid Adhesive
- Paint brush
- Paper plate or bowl
- 1 branch. Preferably one that opens up from narrow to wide to give your mobile a more interesting appearance.
- 1 can of silver spray paint
- 4 hemostatic clamps (they look like this.)
- 1 set of small scissors
- 1 tube of super glue
- 1 small ceiling hook
Directions
- Take your branch outside and spray paint it a metallic silver. This may take several coats for full coverage, but you'll want to take plenty of breaks while punching and gluing your butterflies! Start early so the paint will have time to dry. (If you're pregnant, recruit someone else to help with spray paint.)
- Pull up something you've been dying to binge watch on Netflix. Settle down at a table with your craft paper and punch.
- Start punching. I was able to get 42 butterflies from each sheet of paper. Each butterfly is 1 1/2 inches. That's 126 butterflies in each color and 504 total. Trust me when I tell you that quantity is key! If you have a larger punch, use more paper to get a mass of punch outs.
- Cut a 2 1/2 foot piece of fishing line.
- Squeeze a small amount of adhesive into your paper bowl. Using the paint brush, put a small dollop in the center of a butterfly, then press a second butterfly of the same color firmly against the first, wedging the end of the fishing line between the two.
- Move up the line approximately 3 inches (there's no need to be precise - a little randomness looks better!) and repeat with another set of 2 butterflies.
- For the darkest color, place a total of 5 butterfly sets on the 2 1/2 foot piece of line, each set about 3 inches apart.
- Repeat until all of the darkest color are used up. You will have a few extra butterflies.
- For the next darkest color, make 3-4 strands with 5 butterfly sets a piece, then transition down to 4 sets of butterflies.
- For the third darkest color, make 5-6 strands with 4 butterfly sets, then transition down to 3 sets of butterflies.
- For the lightest color, make 7-9 strands with 3 butterfly sets, then transition down to 2 sets per strand.
- Hopefully your branch is dry and silver at this point. Take three lengths of fishing line and attach them together and up to hang the branch from a rod, pole, or other fixture that will allow you to start hanging strands of butterflies.
- Start at the thinnest end of the branch and with the darkest color strands. You will have fewer total dark strands than the other colors. Tie simple nots around the branch, and clip the undersides with a hemostat. Place a small drop of super glue on the topside of the branch where the fishing line hits the branch to firmly affix the line in place.
- While the first strand is drying, place the second, third and fourth strands using the same knot/hemostat/super glue method. By the time the fourth strand is up, the glue will be dry enough so you can remove the first hemostat, clip the excess line using the small scissors, and move on.
- Space the strands so that the tops of the butterfly sets start at approximately (but not exactly) the same distance from the branch. This will give the mobile a "swooping" look once the different lengths of butterfly sets are up.
- After using up all of the 5 set dark butterflies, move to the 5 set second darkest butterflies, then to the 4 set of the same color.
- Keep adding strands, going along all portions of the branch as it widens out until all of the butterfly strands are affixed, with the lightest 2 set strands last.
- Double check for any excess fishing line and clip off any stray bits.
- Decide where you want to mount your finished mobile and screw in the ceiling hook. Always have a second person help with this because you'll want to experiment with placement and check it out from multiple angles before committing to the hook's placement.
Enjoy your mobile! I hope my daughter delights in this little room addition. I certainly enjoyed crafting something special for her.