It's been a very, very long time. Last September to be exact and I've missed writing. I do have LOTS to catch up on but I'm going to start with the fact that my baby girl, Jennifer is having a baby girl!! She's due on May 5th!!
To say we're excited over here is an understatement! I gave her a baby shower recently and I'll post about that soon, but today I'm posting about a nursery crib mobile I made for them.
It started one day when Jenn sent me a pic from Pinterest saying she wanted to purchase one. I looked at the price and thought, ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME?!? So, I thought "how hard can this be?". I told her not to buy it that I will make one. Problem was, as much as I searched and searched online for some kind of directions to make one, they were either non existent or so very vague that they were no help at all! So, I figured it out on my own and in hopes to help ANYONE out there wanting to make one, I'm posting here my step by step process. Of course you don't have to make yours exactly like mine, but I'm going to give you the basics anyway so you aren't totally in the dark like I was. Please excuse my close up pics of my nails and wrinkly hands 😬
What you'll need:
- A base (embroidery hoop etc.)
- Scissors
- Needle
- Hot glue gun (or glue)
- Crimp beads
- Crimper or Needle-nose pliers
- Filament or fishing line
- Beads
- Feathers
We went to Hobby Lobby for a base. The round part that all the feathers will dangle from. It can be an embroidery hoop or you can design one yourself with string/yarn and something round. We found a metal medallion that was the perfect color to match the nursery.
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| I didn't care for the burlap flower so I changed it. This is approximately 12" in diameter. |
We picked out some feathers and beads.
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| Also bought some beading filament |
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| And some crimp beads. I bought a crimper but you can use some needle-nose pliers. |
Find a needle that you can thread the filament into. I also hanged the base on a light in the breakfast room so I can work on it and see just how long it will be etc.
Cut a piece of the line about 1.5 to 2 feet. Thread one end with the needle (this will be the bottom) and place a bead on it. I'm using small beads with a larger crystal bead in the middle. Thread the bead(s) on it and then take the end of the line up through the second bead. Like so..
Next you'll add a little glue (I used a hot-glue gun) to the very bottom of the bead.
Next I'll add a feather. If it's a large feather you can thread your needle through the quill. First you'll want to maybe cut some of it off...
For some of the smaller feathers, you can have two together and hot glue them instead of using the needle. Sometimes they're just too small..
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| Like this one. There is a set of beads underneath as well as on top. |
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| After putting the feather over the beads, string another set of beads over the feather. |
Now you'll decide if you want 2 or 3 more feathers spaced out over about 12". Some I did with one, two or three. Jenn did not want them all even on each line but feel free to that if you like. You can have just one feather if you like. It's your mobile so it will look awesome how ever you decide.
Next, you're going to cut it about 5 inches from the actual length you want. Then you'll place a crimping bead on the line. Bring the line around the base where you'd like to place it and thread the end through the crimp bead, then push it up as close to the base as you can and then crimp it.
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| Sorry this is blurry |
Then cut the remainder of the line close to the crimp bead.
And...viola!! Originally we were just going to use the crystal beads but I found some rose gold tiny beads and thought they would just make the crystal ones stand out a bit more.
I'm really happy with how it turned out and I hope I helped someone with their plans to make one.
Please let me know if you have any questions and as always...
