Sweet Pea Mobile

Materials:

• card stock in your choice of colours ( 3 colours look best)
  
• fishing line or clear jewelry thread
• fishing weights or beads
  
• something circular for the top
  

The first project I started was a mobile. The inspiration came from Ohdeedoh. I saw this mobile on their site:

http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/make-a-plexiglass-top-for-a-diy-mobilehow-to-138193

The article is really about the plexiglass top, but I loved the three tones and the circles. Because if you think about it, peas really are circles, aren't they? So, circles became the starting point. I repeated the circle theme in the other decorations, including the polka dot balloons.

I really recommend getting a circle cutter, if you want to try to make a mobile like this. It will save oodles of time and painstakingly cutting out circle after circle. I got one a Michael's, I had a 40% off coupon. Bonus! Circle cutters look something like this:

Martha Stewart Circle Cutter

I didn't get this exact one, but they all basically work the same. One tip I discovered, it is helpful to tape the edges of the paper down to the cutting matt, otherwise the paper may slip and you won't get a perfect circle. I picked up 3 colours of card stock: kelly green, teal green and sage green. Card stock was on sale 5 sheets for $2 so I had more than enough paper for this project. I did a few tests on a scrap piece of paper first, and I decided 1 1/4 inch circles was the perfect diameter. I cut out lots and lots of each colour, I don't know how many exactly but I do know I used 48 circles in total. There are 6 strands and each strand has eight circles. For the top, I used a needle working circle. It was 89 cents, and it already had perfectly spaced holes. It made the whole thing alot easier.

Using a sewing needle and fishing line, I poked holes in the top and bottom of each circle and strung eight onto each strand. Don't worry if it's not perfectly even, you can adjust the spacing after. Once I had all the strands I needed, I tied them to the plastic circle top and balanced the whole thing out. I had trouble getting the strands to hang straight so I added some fishing weights to the end of each, and that solved it. They look like beads, but they aren't.

Once you are happy with the way it hangs, adjust the spacing between the circles and trim any excess fishing line. That's it! This project is very inexpensive, but it is a time commitment. I estimate I spent about $4 on this project, but I spent 3-4 hours working on it. But, considering mobiles are super expensive to buy, it makes sense to make one. There are so many options, that it is easy to personalize this project to your taste and colour scheme.