The Mobile- All Grown Up

I love mobiles! When I was in The Land Of Nod a month ago all the mobiles in the mock up kids rooms just make me melt. They are a fun and a simple way to add to a kid's room. But what am I supposed to do as a grown up who wants one for herself?

Here is what I came up with...

Want to know how I made this? Well your in luck!

Supplies (for one tissue paper ball)

• About 2 sheets tissue paper, I used solid pink and three colors of green on the other
• 3 inch Styrofoam ball
• Craft glue
• Ribbon and 5 straight pins - to connect them into a mobile

First cut you tissue paper into squares. They don't have to be perfect mine were around 3X3. Try and keep them about the same size. I cut my tissue into strips and then cut the squares all at once to keep them uniform.

Take the square and fold it in half diagonally.
Now take the two outer corners and create a cone, around your finger, by bringing them up and to the opposite sides.

Now cover the end with your craft glue. Take your finger and press the cone to the Styrofoam ball. Press the glue on then kind of bend the cone up with your finger so it sticks up straight. If you press real hard and kind of squish the ball down the paper stick even better. Continue going around the ball until its all covered and you cannot see any white. This is what they look like when they are done!

To create the mobile take some ribbon and put a straight pin through it. Dip the pin in your craft glue and stick it in the ball. Now take the other end of the ribbon and put a pin through it and dip it in the glue and stick it into the other ball. Take another piece of ribbon and double it to make a loop. Stick another straight pin in the ribbon, dip it in glue and stick it in the opposite end of the ball you want at the top. Let the glue dry for a few hours first so the weight doesn't pull the pins out. Find a sunny spot and hang you new spring mobile.

As you can see I also added my sequin St. Patrick's Day ball to the very end, to add some holiday flair to our dorm room. To see how I made that click here.

I also think these would be pretty against an empty wall. To get them to stick out from the wall far enough you would probably have to hang them from the ceiling. I would use fishing line instead of ribbon in that case.

Put A Pin On It - Take 2

As promised, here is the St. Patty's Day version of the flowers I made earlier this week. When I made the first one, I envisioned it as part of a pair, around braided pigtails. After bribing my roommate to be my model, my version has become reality! Super!!

Here they are in all their glory!

Don't you love them? I do soooo much. They look amazing on my roommate, who plays the part of Irish quite well. She is actually from Paraguay.

What did I do differently for this guys as apposed to the red tutorial I posted a few days ago? First I used three circles, one white and two green. I controlled the folds and ruffles much more than last time. First I folded the circle taco style and sewed along the fold. Then I folded the circle where I wanted a ruffle to be and sewed up the crease on the bottom until I got the look I wanted. The felt is kind of flimsy so you have to sew it a lot to get it to stay put. Just keep folding and sewing until you like it and then sew the three layers together. I made the green ones really big and after I sewing them together I trimmed them to be smaller. Then I did the whip stitch around the edge like last time and glued on the pearl. Perfection! If you wanted to check out the original post with the step by step tutorial click here!

No April showers needed for these spring flowers!

Put A Pin On It

Want to make this pretty flower? It can be a pin of even go in your hair on a pin or ponytail holder.

Here we go.

1. Gather your supplies

• Felt- you can use whatever colors you have around
• A needle and thread- you can see I used a contrasting thread for the edges
• A pearl or button- you can use anything here for the center of the flower
• hot glue- for putting on the center, you could also sew on the middle if its a button or something else with a hole.

2. Cut two circles out of the felt, one slightly larger than the other. The smaller one is the center of your flower
3.

Don't be afraid to add a lot of stitches here. This is the center of your flower and the stitches won't show. Get it to look good.

I trimmed the white circle so it was kind of wavy. Here you do the same thing as above. Pinch the white and sew through the folds to get the look you want.

Next thread up your needle with a contrasting thread and do a whip stitch around the edges of the outer flower. There is lots of variations you could do here. Add another layer of felt, do different colors, do two layers of the same colors, or do the contrasting stitch on the center layer or both layers. The possibilities are as endless as your craft supply stash!

Finally pick out your center and hot glue it in. I added a safety pin to the back and wore it around on my shirt all day
I am going to make one so I don't get pinched on St. Patrick's day. I will post it soon!

Spring Wreath

Before Christmas I bought a Styrofoam wreath form. I was planning on making a Christmas wreath. But I never got around to it. I have been debating what to do with this wreath and to celebrate spring I created this beautiful yellow and green wreath for our door!


I thought I would share how I did this wreath so everyone can celebrate spring!

Start by winding a small ball of yarn from your larger ball. This will make it easier to wrap. It is really hard to estimate how much yarn to wind but err on the side of too much.

Start wrapping the form. Wrap over the end a few times and it should be secure. Wrap until the wreath is covered.


Glue in the center of the flower- I chose a pearl bead.

Place your flowers on the wreath and glue. I put mine off to the side a little.

Now you have a few options. I took 12 strands of yarn and braided them. Then I glued them on the back of my wreath like so...
You could also use ribbon of a contrasting yarn.

Ta DA! A pretty spring wreath!