Remember that kickin’ mobile that I made for the bodacious boy boudoir? It’s time for a little tutorial on how that $12 gem came to be so you too can enjoy the soothing swishes and turns of a custom mobile…without breaking the bank. If you have a nephew/baby on the way, or just want some 3D art in your home, you can whip up this homemade mobile in about 30 minutes flat.
I saw a similar mobile on etsy one day while doing some nursery research, but wasn’t quite sold on the color scheme that the seller offered. Then it occured to me – why not make a mobile? It couldn’t be that difficult, right? It’s just some hangy things on some string to keep the baby’s mind gears turning – I think I can handle that. I used the etsy mobile as my guideline and popped over to my beloved neighborhood Michael’s to stock up on some supplies.
Riveting photograph, I know. My supplies for this project were as follows: 3 squeezy bottles of craft paint, 2 foam paint brushes (I splurged for 2 to speed up my process since they weren’t more than 50 cents each), a bag of pre-cut wood shapes for $3.00 and some bead jewelry string (easier to work with than fishing wire, in my opinion). I also picked up a 9″ brass hoop and some fun orange ribbon after my attempt to create a top from a clothes hanger failed miserably.
Once I had my handy craft supplies, I laid out the pre-cut shapes into three columns, being sure to mix up the patterns and the lengths of the mobile pieces to give the final piece some dimension. You could use all one shape of wood cut outs, but I would recommend keeping the length of your mobile pieces varied so there is a bit of visual interest when the mobile is hanging. I then brushed some cheap-o craft paint on my wood pieces, let dry, then painted the other sides.
My seminole lovin’ heart was desperately resisting painting these pieces orange and blue, but hey, it’s all in the name of design. I still know where my loyalties are. :) After the paint dried (remarkably in about 5 minutes) I took a large size nail and created a hole in the center of each wood piece. I did this by nailing the nail into each size of a wood piece on top of an old magazine. Unconventional, I know, but I didn’t want to search for a scrap piece of wood to nail into, so the magazine got the job done. I just hope that Reese Witherspoon will forgive me for jabbing a nail into her photo spread repeatedly.
After that, I strung the jewelry string through the wood pieces at varying lengths, tying a quick knot on each side of the wood pieces so they stayed put in their positions on the string. After all three strands were completed, I tied them to my brass hoop and kept a long strand of excess string to use to hang the finished mobile.
The brass ring I used for my top just didn’t mesh with the modern decor of the nursery (brass screams old lady – sorry brass lovers, but trust me on this one) so I pulled out some punchy orange ribbon and a hot glue gun and went to town wrapping that brass bad boy. I had to get some assistance from my grumbly husband to hold the mobile up while I wrapped (he’s not a fan of the arts and crafts), but you could hang it from a ceiling fan and get the same effect. After I wrapped the brass away, the mobile was complete and ready to be hung in said nursery. Simple, no?
That lovely trunk full of goodness is for my sister’s nursery! If you don’t see a blog about it in a week or so, that means I did a horrible job on my first ever mural and I’m hiding my shame by not posting. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. I went to Ikea yesterday and picked up 4 curtains, 2 floating shelves, 2 picture frames and one wall sconce, all for under 175 bones. You read that right. Where else can you get such a bounty of goods without breaking the bank? Did I mention I love Ikea?
Here’s a little preview of some custom bicycle artwork in a $5 Ikea frame. I may be taking the bike theme and running it into the ground, but don’t you love it? Yay for cheap art!
Next, I used the wall paint in my guest bedroom as a starting point (because I had some leftover) and picked up two other small tubes of acrylic paint in the same color family. You can basically buy whatever paint you’d like, but I chose these $2.00 
I started with the wall color at the top of my canvas and painted a third of the way down. Looking back, I probably would have divided the piece up into three non-equal parts, but I’m still happy with the outcome. I then mixed a bit of the yellow paint in with the orange (right on the canvas) to blend the two together, then brought in the orange for the 2nd portion of the canvas, then followed with the red. I used my handy dandy 
I continued the paint on the front of the canvas around to the edges to make sure any of the white canvas wasn’t exposed. I’m all about a crisp, white frame, but in the case of a canvas “painting”, I think the allure of it is that the painting exceeds the frame. I use the word “painting” loosely because hey, this is basically preschool type artwork – but you’d be amazed at the reaction I’ve gotten from this simple project! This is by no way anything new or innovative, but I hope this shows you how incredibly easy it is to create lovely, abstract art a la 
I think I’ll crop out the slogan and pop it into a crisp, white frame. I found this poster on a website called 
I also thought about incorporating this bicycle picture that Scott and I took on our honeymoon in the Florida Keys. We stayed at a friend’s parents’ rental home for the week and rode these rusty old bikes all around the island to get some grub or watch a sunset on the beach. Ahh, pure heaven. Sure, it’s more of a memory for me than the new bebe, but the colors and bike theme really hit the nail on the head. Am I taking the bike theme a bit too far? Possibly. We’ll see if any of these ideas actually make it into the nursery.
