How to Make Your Own High Contrast Baby Mobile

Hello again readers!  This past weekend I had been looking through my photo library and came across some images of a DIY high contrast baby mobile project I did while I was pregnant with my now almost 15 month old.  During my serious nesting phase of pregnancy is when we really started to put together my son’s nursery.  We were on a budget of course (babies are pretty expensive) and we wanted to do as much as possible of the nursery decor ourselves.  Without any specific theme in mind we decided to just go with things that we liked and our four favorite colors.  The colors we chose to decorate around were a plum-ish purple, teal, grey and black.  When it came time to chose a mobile for over the crib I had no idea what I wanted or what to look for.  I read about how high contrast mobiles help with brain development in infants, I knew that is what I wanted.

Now, living in Arizona rainy days are the best!  Rainy days are my favorite considering how rare they are out here in the desert.  When I wake-up and find that it is beautifully overcast with a chance of rain… it is automatically a good day.  A strange trend that occurred throughout my pregnancy was that about 90% of the days that I had an OBGYN appointment or an ultrasound, it was rainy.  I began to associate the rain with my baby and wanted to somehow incorporate that into the nursery decor.

One day while I was trying to think of a project for my daughter and I to work on, I became inspired by some scrapbook paper I found in the craft closet.  I wanted to make my very own “rainstorm” for over the crib.  Off to the craft store we went for further inspiration and ideas of how to make this work.  There are certain things that I would do differently if I were to make another mobile, but for this being a first attempt and an overall success, I will tell you how I did it and what I would change as we go through the steps.  I realize that I didn’t take a bunch of photos of the actual “making” of the mobile but hopefully my instructions are good enough…

D.I.Y High Contrast Paper Mobile

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What you need for this project:

I bought most of these items at my local craft store and utilized in-store coupons to keep my project costs down.  Some items I already had at home from previous projects.

The images below are affiliate links to items available for purchase through Amazon.  If you do make a purchase through one of these links, I may receive a small commission.

• 2 wooden dowels 12″ in length (I used square)-
• 13 Self Tapping Eye Screws-
• Thick string,twine or yarn-
• Card-stock/Scrapbook paper-
• Rubber Cement-
• Scissors-
• Ruler (to use as a flat edge)-
• Raindrop Paper Punch-
• Ribbon-
• E6000 Adhesive-

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Project Steps:

1. Paint your dowels and let them dry.
2. On your two dowels make dots marking where you are going to place your eye screws for the strings of the mobile.  On one dowel I marked the center (6″) then marked 1 3/4″ from that mark then another 1 3/4″ from the second mark and then again 1 3/4″ from the third mark.  This will give you seven marks if you do this on both sides of the center mark.  Then on your second dowel find the center (6″) and place a mark there.  Turn that same second dowel upside down and mark on the opposite side your marks for the eye-screws.  On this dowel I marked measuring from each end at 1/2″ then 2 1/2″, then 4 1/2 “… this gives you six marks on one side and one mark at 6” on the other side.
3.  Attach the two dowels- I used the E6000 to attach the dowels at the center going across one another, with all of your markings (six on one and seven on the other) facing the same direction.  It should look like an “x”.  Set it aside to dry for awhile.
4.  While the dowels are adhering, draw three different sized cloud shapes on card-stock then cut them out.  (I put a marking on one side of each of them that way I knew which side would be considered the top/bottom.
5. Use your raindrop paper punch to punch out a bunch of different colored raindrops.  I used several different shades and colors of paper for this.
6.  After your dowels are dry, you can use your self tapping eye-screws and gently screw them into the dowels on the 13 total marks made as well as the one that should be in the center on the opposite side of your dowel “x”.  You can unscrew them add a tiny bit of E6000, then thread them back in if you want to be 100% sure they do not come out.  Let it dry if using glue before next step.
7.  Cut a length of your ribbon and thread through the single top eye-screw and tie at the top.  This is how you will hang your mobile.  To make it easier for me to work on the clouds and raindrops I hung this from a lamp switch/knob while attaching them to the strands of twine.
8.  Starting from the center of the 13 eye-screws tie a long piece of your thick string (I started with about 24″ lengths).  Knot the string a few times at the top and trim the short end.
9. Using the cloud templates that you made, trace and cut out four different colors of each cloud size making sure to keep the marked upside the same on all of your four cut-outs.  I made eight varying-in-size/four-sided clouds for my mobile.  To make the clouds, fold each cloud in half, match up the clouds and lightly rubber cement each side then stick together and hold until dry (see pic/collage for better understanding).
10. Attach your clouds to the string by tying a knot on the string where you want the bottom of your cloud to be.  With your one side/section left unglued slide your cloud around the string.  Apply rubber cement on each unglued side of your cloud and press together firmly.
11. Repeat this process until all of your clouds are hanging at various heights on the different strings hanging off of each eye-screw.
12. Now, for the raindrops… You are pretty much doing the exact same thing as you did with the clouds.  The only difference is that I only had three-sided rain drops.
13.  Add the raindrops to the strings at varying heights.  I like to have the finished cloud and raindrops strands go from long in the center of the mobile to shorter on the outside, but of course, do what you like and make this project your own.
14. Once all of your clouds and raindrops are finished and on the hanging strands, trim any excess thread/string and firmly press all of the areas of the clouds and raindrops to ensure that they dry properly stuck together.
15. Voila!  You are done and ready to hang over your baby’s crib.

I hope you found this DIY guide useful, and if you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to leave them below.  Thanks for reading!

 

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