After spotting some cute paper mobiles on Pinterest, I decided I would try to whip one up on my own! Much cheaper than the $30-40 sell price of similar items on Etsy 
I picked out 5 pieces of scrapbook paper, that would coordinate with Noah’s bedroom (free! – since I already had them). I picked up an embroidery hoop from Walmart ($4), and some jewelry hoops from a dollar store ($1).
I used an old-school scrapbooking tool called a Coluzzle to cut out 3 sizes of circles. I decided which order the 5 papers should be in, and then laid out each of my mobile strands. I made 8 strands. 4 of the strands had 7 circles (3 big, 2 medium, 2 small), and the other 4 strands had 8 circles (4 big, 2 medium, 2 small).
The green leaf patterned paper, and the orange spotted paper were white on the back, so I cut out 3x as many of those circles and decided to make them all 3-d. I took 3 circles, folded them each in half, and then glued them together to get the 3-d circles you see below. This added some fun dimension to the mobile!
I used a sewing needle to poke holes in the top and bottom of each circle. Then, using pliers, I attached the circles together with jewelry hoops. Easy-peesy!
All the while… Noah played happily on the floor with his Sophie
I attached the strands to the embroidery hoop with clear fishing wire, alternating the 8-circle strands with the 7-circle strands. I took 4 long strands of fishing wire and tied them to the 4 sides of the embroidery hoop, pulling them up so they met in the middle (sorry, no pictures of this exciting step!). I decided where I wanted the mobile to hang from the hook in the ceiling and then tied all 4 strands into a knot. By hanging the mobile from the knot, it is really flexible to move and twirl around. As you can see from Noah’s flailing arms and legs, he LOVES it! He talks to it, and stares at it from across the room when he gets his diaper changed. Best of all, it cost me only $5! You should make one
Photo Credit: First 2 mobile images from Etsy. All other images by Kim Norcross.
Hey that’s cool Kim! Good for you!