Double DIY

 I am super proud and excited of a mobile I made for the nursery last night!!!  At my SD shower my friend Amber had made these really cute DIY paper cutout decorations that hung from ribbon (of course the the paper cut outs were color coordinated with the nursery, pink damask pattern, grey damask pattern, blush pink and white) and at the end of the shower she asked what I wanted and what she could throw away.  I realized I didn't have a mobile for the nursery and a light bulb clicked with these ribbon/paper cut out decorations and I said "I want these, I'll make a mobile or something". 

You can see some of the decorations hanging here from the shower

The ribbons hung out on the dining room table for about 3 weeks and I didn't know where to start with making a mobile, I had never made one before!!  So about a week ago I decided I needed to get moving on this project if I was going to get it done and turned to what else but google.com to find out how to make a mobile.  I found a few websites and just kind of took the ideas and started on my way.

The only thing I needed to pick up was a wood embroidery loop at Michael's  (I used a 12" one), I had the cut outs, I had the ribbon, I had a hot glue gun and glue stick, and I had the spray paint from that lovely frame project I did. 

I decided to take off the cut-offs from the ribbon they were on so I could start over with them and set them on pink ribbon, so I carefully removed them from the ribbon and set them into coordinating piles.  I was going to use pink ribbon and clear thread to hang them but ended up just using the pink ribbon.  Here are all my supplies ready to go.

I first spray painted the wood ring pink.  Then cut various lengths of the pink ribbon to hang the cut outs from about 8", 10", 12" and 14" and decided 12 strands total would be good.  I cut three even pieces of ribbon and made a loop at the end to use as the hanging device and hot glued that  to the wood ring (this I kind of eyeballed and didn't use exact measurements on, it's pretty even that's all I care about).

Then I started on making the strands (this was the most time consuming part).  I used the glue stick to glue two of the same pattern cutouts to the ribbon so it was the same on both sides and decided that the ribbons would have 3, 4 or 5 cutouts on them, depending on the length of the ribbon.  Again not an exact measurement between the cutouts I just eyeballed it, roughly 3" though. 

Once I finished the strands it was time to attach them to the wood ring.  Since there were 6 sections on the ring I hung two per section.  I used the hot glue gun to attach the ribbon strands to the front of the ring.  Then I used a pretty grey glitter ribbon that I had saved from a diaper cake that my friend Michelle had made from my NY shower which was the PERFECT size and length to wrap around the front of the wood ring to hide the hot glue spillover and cut ribbon pieces.  Then I was DONE, yay!!  Since it was my first time making one it took longer than if would do it again but it took about 3 hours total.

I was so excited and really liked how it came out so of course I wanted to hang it right away.  Tim wasn't home and since I am a "I want it done now and I'm going to do it" type person, even at 9 months preggo, I went to the garage and found one of those screw in hooks to twist into the drywall in the nursery ceiling and grabbed the step stool and headed up to the nursery.  I couldn't decide exactly where to place it and after screwing two different holes into the ceiling (whoops...that is what nail hole filler is for though!) I decided she would get the most enjoyment out of viewing it above her crib.  It is high enough that I don't think she will be able to grab at it even when she starts standing in her crib, which is certainly some time from now anyways!

One more thing checked off the nesting to-do list :)