Nursery mobile with cardboard roll, DIY

One of the trends that has made me gape in awe is the sheer magnitude of products for babies these days. As a new mom wanting to give my baby the best, I am obviously tempted to buy more for the bundle of joy. 

But let's not forget that for every plastic toy we collect in the name of a child's learning and play, we add that much more to the earth's toxin burden. Sometimes these toys are a mere phase, leaving you wondering what to do with them. Nursery mobiles are a fad with parents. From colourful to sophisticated, they are a must for any nursery with a baby and crib.

For a change, I decided to make my own nursery mobile. I am not so satisfied with the resulting piece, but it's given me loads of confidence to make more of the kind and gift to babies.

It may sound a surprise, but the project really did not cost me a fortune. I had to make use of household craft stash.

What I used:

-- a pair of scissors

-- a duct tape ring leftover after using the tape up

-- embroidery skein of the same colour as the wrapping paper or ribbon or plarn to cover the duct tape ring

 (I used parrot green colour thread)

-- a needle and white thread

-- cloth flowers of accented shades

-- punches - circle and flower type

-- patterned paper, sequins, some household cardboard if need be

-- craft glue

-- soda can pull-tab...always keep these handy, you never know what they can be useful for

I began by wrapping the cardboard roll with plarn (plastic yarn that I made before with plastic shopping bags). You can try wrapping it with satin ribbon or some patterned paper. If you plan to glue up decorative paper though, make sure you have sufficient glue for it.

I let its end stay for a while, lest I would need it later. Now came the need for my embroidery skein. A white or jute twine could be your alternates here.

I started off by leaving some thread, about half a feet, and fixing sequins on it. To fix sequins, I picked up a pair, squeezed glue on to one of them, placed the thread over it to run through its center, and stuck on it another sequin of the same shape and size.

I used the craft punches to cut out circles and flowers from the patterned paper. Some flower shapes I had in stash earlier from mail trash. I left space of a few inches on the thread, and glued together another pair of circles from the patterned paper, and some flower shaped punched pieces from magazine recycle.

After this it was about tying the thread on to the cardboard ring. Try leaving irregular spaces, and do not stick to the same length each time you cut a piece of the embroidery skein. You can fix about five such pieces on to the roll. Add some pieces of ribbon and maybe knot it up on the ring to hang down alongside the threads.

I used long pieces of ribbon to tie through the roll for a handle on top of the mobile, and inserted the bunch of four lines of the ribbon into the soda can pull tab for buckling up.

Your nursery mobile is ready. This is a rather simple one. I hope to improvise though future projects. I am sure my baby will love this. The piece took some time to make, and was taxing, considering how busy the little angel keeps me these days. But it was worth the effort. I am waiting to see the reaction on her face when I hang it near her bed.

For re-use, write to: radiscribe@gmail.com