Year in Color #3-Whimsical Mobile

  So the goal for this week's color theme was to use the color white in an unusual way.  I was having a little lack of originality going on, so I pretty much just did another craft, but still could be considered a creative perspective on the color. (?) :)  I am currently (yes... still!!) in the process of funkifying (yeah I made that up) my 9 month old son's nursery.  And yes, I plan to have a post about it once I completely finish.  But for today, here's my white project to add to his bedroom:

 A hand-made, mommy designed mobile to hang over his crib!  So he's 9 months old, maybe doesn't need a mobile anymore, but I was really excited about it, especially once I hung it up! It really gave that extra something to the bedroom.  It's a fairly simple project, inspired by my 9th grade Spanish class when we made pinatas!  Thought I'd give you a simple tutorial in case you are struck with inspiration from seeing this post. :)  (If you are... send me some photos and I'll share them here!)

Whimsical Mobile Tutorial:

1.  Cut a star out of a piece of cardboard.  I did most this project free hand, but it may be smarter to use a pattern!  If you want to make it 3-D (as we did when doing the pinatas) create a paper machete shape with paper and glue.

2.  Using white tissue paper, cut approximately 1 inch strips, and then cut that into 1 inch squares. 

3.  Smear a thin layer of glue across a small area to start with.  Wrap a single square of tissue paper over the flat end of a colored pencil, or over the eraser of a pencil.

4. Push the tissue paper firmly down onto the glue with the end of the pencil.  Twisting the pencil helps to make the paper stick to the cardboard, and not to the pencil.

5. Cover your entire shape with tissue.  It is also neat to mix tissue colors, or create another design by drawing it first on your cardboard and filling it in with colors of your choice.

6. Cut small slits where you plan to hang the mobile from, as well as wherever you plan to hang your extra doo-dads from.

7. Paint the backside black. After doing this project, I would actually recommend completing this before you glue the tissue on the front. You can paint words, designs, or glue photos, or even glue tissue to this side also to make it look more 3-D.

8. Draw/trace stars onto paper and cut out.

9. Cut ribbon and string through mobile.  Glue stars together with ribbon ends in between to attach to mobile. Also string ribbon through the top hole to hang from ceiling. 

10. Easily hang completed mobile from the ceiling with a thumb tack.  That's all I needed because it was so light-weight, but if you used heavier things to hang, you may need to find a better way to attach it.

 And the finished product, from both angles! Not the most complicated thing, but fun to make and cute for kiddos!  There are SO many different things you could make using this simple technique! I would love to see what you can come up with!

    Don't forget to sign up for the GIVEAWAY in my previous post!  Many ways to sign up, 4 days left to do it!   God bless you always!
-MJ