I really should be posting Chanukah crafts, since the holiday is approaching, but I really wanted to share this project with you now, as it has so many great possibilities. Make it for your home as an ode to the last vestiges of fall, and do it together with the kids and make a few! Make one as a great handmade gift— a baby mobile for the nursery, or take this idea and make it more suited to December by changing the bird to a red cardinal, and the leaves to green holly leaves! You could even hang a few snowflakes from the bottom instead of the bird!
You can whip these up quite quickly and with very little expense, and they'll cheer you up all winter long. Great results with very little time investment—the very best type of craft project!
You'll Need:
- Wooden embroidery hoops in two sizes: I used a 10 inch hoop and a 6 inch hoop
- Felt in a few fall colors plus light blue
- Light-weight cardboard
- Yarn or string for hanging
- Yarn for decorating shapes
- Sequins
- Glue
How-To:
Follow the simple steps here, to make the mobiles shown here. Try to use these ideas as a starting point and enjoy creating a unique mobile that you can truly call your own!
Step 1:Draw shapes on light-weight cardboard and cut them out. To make the blue birds, glue a piece of felt to the cardboard bird shape and once dry, trim felt to the exact size of the cardboard. Cover both sides of the shape with felt if you'll be making a hanging mobile. Decorate with small felt cut-outs, yarn and sequins, or even buttons, ribbon and beads!
Step 2: Separate the two rings of the embroidery hoop, slip one inside the other, and connect by wrapping yarn around the intersection as shown here. Or secure with glue. Do this at both the top and bottom, and to both hoops.
Step 3: Hang the small hoops within the large hoops, and if possible find a place to hang it within reach. It's easier to do the next steps with the mobile in a hanging position.
Step 4: Using a large needle, carefully make holes in your shapes. Insert yarn or thread through the holes for hanging and tie to mobile base. To finish off your mobile, decorate the outside of the hoops with felt raindrops and falling leaves.
Tips: Be resourceful! Instead of using embroidery hoops as the mobile base, you could use a simple metal clothes hanger, a large metal or plastic ring, or even a band of cardboard secured to form a circle.
Here's a few more shapes that I made but didn't end up using for the mobile. I thought I'd show them to you for inspiration. Extra shapes could even be glued on to heavy card stock to use as greeting cards, or punch a hole in the top for a gorgeous tag on a present!
The pieces on this adorable version were made by my seven year old daughter, with no help from Mommy. I just love what she did with the yarn on the birds! And it's great if you happen to need a wall decoration more than a mobile, just use one of the rings from the embroidery hoop, and you can make two wall hangings from one hoop!
Happy crafting, and please do me a favor and click on the stumble upon button in the left column!
