DIY - Mobile for the Nursery!

I'm super excited with how this project turned out and the pictures really don't do it justice!  Hopefully once The Sailor gets home and can actually hang it (from the ceiling) for me I'll be able to get some better pictures!  But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Here are the supplies I used:

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Here's a breakdown...top row (starting on the left):

• Needlenose pliers
• Crimping beads
• Slightly elastic, clear thread (found in the jewelry making section of Michaels)
• Clear beads
• Inner hoop of 3 different sized embroidery hoops.  I had already spray painted these gray (when I was working on the dresser) and I actually only ended up using 2 of them.

Bottom row (again, starting on the left)

• Pinwheels! I used 4 in x 4 in squares of paper and the instructions found here.  Since the paper I found that I liked was one-sided I had to glue two pieces together and I just used a glue stick to do this.  Then the brad I used to secure it all together was actually a little rhinestone to add a little sparkle!  I didn't use all of these (I went a little overboard when I was making them, lol) - I only used 5 of them - but I'll find a way to use the rest in another part of the nursery!!!
• Adhesives - but I only used the hot glue gun for this project.

Step 1:

Attach the two embroidery hoops to one another.  I used the string and just cut out 4 pieces that were the same length and spaced them evenly around the hoop (using hot glue).

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Step 2:

String the pinwheels so they can be hung from the embroidery hoops.  To do this, first I cut a length of the string and put a crimping bead on the very end - all you have to do is hold the crimping bead in the needlenose pliers and compress in on the very end of the string.  Then I put one of the larger, clear beads on the string:

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Step 3:

Attach the pinwheel to the beaded string.  All I did for this was put a glob of hot glue on the back of the pinwheel and use that to adhere the clear bead to the pinwheel:

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Step 4:

Create strings of beads for added interest.  So, in order to not make the mobile look too cluttered I ended up deciding to hang 2 pinwheels from the bottom hoop, 2 from the top, and 1 down the middle.  To add a little more visual interest I decided to create 2 strings of the clear beads to hang from the bottom and top hoops.  I created these using the crimping beads just like in step 2.

Step 5:

Attach two pinwheels and two strings of beads to the lower hoop.  I did this with the hot glue:

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Step 6:

Attach two pinwheels and two strings of beads to the upper hoop.  I did this with the hot glue.

Step 7:

Attach 4 identical length pieces of ribbon to the top hoop to be used to hang the mobile from.  They need to be the same length and be equally spaced around the top hoop; I attached them with hot glue.  Then I tied the four pieces of ribbon together in the middle.

Step 8:

Attach 1 pinwheel to the knot in the hanging-ribbon:

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At this point you really could be done!!  But, I didn't like that you could see the hot glue blobs on the inside of the hoops so I decided to cover that.

Step 9:

Cover the inside of the two hoops with ribbon.  For this I just used double sided tape.

Et voila, a DIY pinwheel mobile for the nursery:

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Yes, I'm holding the mobile with a banana hook, lol

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Isn't it pretty???  And super simple/in-expensive.  My best guess would be that I spent $15 on supplies for this project - can't beat that!

Until next time...