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!

My Irish Eyes Are Smiling

I have 8 Styrofoam balls left over from Christmas. Yes I over bought, and now I am scratching my head trying to figure out what to do with all of them. Today I decided to use up some of the sequins I have, also left over from Christmas. Ready to make a cute green and gold decoration to celebrate the Irish in you?

Supplies

• Styrofoam ball
• Straight pins
• Green and Gold sequins
• Clip art print out
• Optional- Beads and Glue
  

Here I started with a sequin then a bead then the pin. But I ended up taking out the beads, since I think they distract from the image. So the pictures will show both ways.

Stay on the edges and then fill in the design. You can pin right over the design. Remember to take out the pins you used to put on the clip art as you get around to them.

Once you finish the shamrock your decoration it will look like this...

Once you go around the outside of the shamrock, continue covering the rest of the ball with the gold sequins. I only did the design on one side, but you could do two designs, or even a few smaller shapes on yours!

Here is the finish product! Not quite sure what I am going to do with this guy. I think I will attach a ribbon to the top and hang it somewhere, but it might end up as part of a larger St. Patrick's Day display!

Here is another picture with another Styrofoam ball project that is headed you way later this week. I found a neat way to cover the ball with felt. No glue, and the pins are not holding it on either.... A Mystery!

*One quick tip, if you add ribbon dip the pin in a little glue then push it through the ribbon and into the Styrofoam. This will prevent the weight of the ball from pulling the ribbon out when hanging.

** This is a great project you can zone out and do while watching the Olympics! That's what I did, just watch those pins!