Over Christmas I took the train down to Oregon, to spend some time with family and decided to have a crafty Christmas! I originally planned to crochet a few baby mobiles, for my little twins, but I started to worry that I was going to run out of time! Time seems to be flying! I can’t believe I was already 24 weeks along for Christmas. I still have their hospital hats, newborn photo props, and more plush toys to crochet! Consequently, I recruited my parent’s help in making a spiral butterfly mobile out of simple scrapbook paper. I wanted a simple and sweet mobile to hang over their changing table, in hopes that it will be a good distraction for all of those upcoming diaper changes. 🙂
I wasn’t quite sure how to make the mobile when I started, so I will do my best to explain the process.
I started with a trip to Michael’s Craft Store to get my supplies. I decided to link to the products on Amazon, for those that do not live close to a Michaels. These are affiliate links, so I will get a small percentage if you buy the item, after clicking on the link, from my site. It does not charge you any more than normal.
Supplies:
Paper – I chose a pack of purple that came in variegated purple. Just be careful not to get too thick of paper.
Yarn or String – I used a cotton crochet thread metallic white/pearl color
Cross Stitch Hoop 12″
Butterfly Punch – There are several options for different styles of butterflies
Tulle – I used lavender color
Scissors
Measuring Tape
Tapestry Needle
Optional: Paint and paint brush – to paint the cross stitch hoop. I used white.
Coats: Crochet & Floss – Aunt Lydia’s Crochet Cotton Metallic Size 10
Once you have all of your supplies, start punching out some butterflies! I just started with one sheet in each color and punched out more as I needed them (I ended up using 24 butterflies in each of the 4 colors). If you are going to paint your cross stitch hoop, I recommend doing that first, so it has time to dry.
To fit on the cross stitch hoop evenly, I made 6 strands of yarn for each color (total of 24 strands). I started with the darkest color being shortest/closest to the hoop. You can see how I started to lay out the strands of butterflies below. I would tie a knot at the end of the yarn, use my tapestry needle to push through the middle of the butterfly and string it on the yarn. Then, I would tie another knot in the yarn about an 1″ up, for the next butterfly, and so on.
Basically, I wanted all of the butterflies to be an inch apart from each other and have 4 butterflies per strand of yarn. For the distance from the top of the hoop, I increased each strand by an inch also. My first butterfly is about an inch away from the hoop and my last butterfly is about 24″ away from the hoop. I also tied a knot in the yarn, so show where it needs to be on the hoop. That way I could leave extra yarn at the top and adjust the butterflies as needed, once they were on the hoop.
Once I had all of my butterflies on the yarn, I started to lay them on the hoop, leaving room to pull the yarn to make adjustments. Close the hoop, then cut the excess yarn once they are in a good placement.
Once all of your butterflies are in place, make sure your hoop is tightened, so they don’t move. Leave a long tail of tulle and begin wrapping around the hoop.
I wrapped the tulle between every strand and tied a knot after the 6th one (where the next color of butterflies start), leaving another long tail of tulle (picture below). How long of a tail depends on how low you plan on hanging the mobile from the ceiling. Starting each section with a long tail and finishing with a long tail, at the next color change.
This gives you a total of 8 tails of tulle, coming from 4 points on the hoop. I ended up just hanging a hook from the ceiling, tying the tulle around the hook and letting the leftover tulle just hang down, like a little canopy, over the top of the hoop.
Hope you like the mobile! I would love to see how you customize it for your little ones!
Please remember that mobiles such as this need to be secured and out of reach from babies. I recommend using this mobile in an area, such as over a changing table, from newborn to 3 months of age. Please secure to ceiling, so that mobile cannot fall into crib or onto baby. Once babies are able to crawl and/or stand, this mobile is no longer safe hanging over their crib.
All pictures used are copyrighted and cannot be used without my written consent. Please do not copy and paste from my post, but feel free to share a link to this post!
Amanda
