Flower Mobile

As I was contemplating how decorate Anna’s room, I wanted to make sure that it was bright and colorful. Since my walls are a very pale yellow (because we didn't know if we were having a boy or girl) I want to make sure all accents have great 'pops' of color.   One way to bring out color was to create a mobile for above her crib. I searched Etsy & Pinterest to find just the right thing.  In my search, I got a lot of great ideas for inspiration, but nothing that fit exactly with my vision or my budget. Since I had a floral theme started for the room I decided to make a flower mobile.  I headed out and found the base for my mobile, a metal macramé ring.  I wanted the flowers to be bright, sturdy and visually interesting on both sides. I decided to purchase felt in bright colors and cut out many flowers of various sizes.  I wanted them to float so I knew I needed some clear string and fishing line seemed to be the best choice.  The flowers alone, didn’t quite pop like I wanted. Hobby Lobby was having 50% off their beads and I found a few strands that fit my color scheme (black beads, green beads and purple butterfly beads).  I also found a few glitter ornaments at Michael’s in their dollar bin (butterflies  & dragon flies). Assembling the mobile was fairly easy. The hardest part was cutting all of the flower shapes from felt as it was very time-consuming.  Overall this project was easy, inexpensive and provided the interest I needed for Anna's room. 


Materials:

• Metal Macrame Ring
• Felt
• Jewels / Buttons
• Beads
• Fishing Line & Needle
• Ornaments (Butterfly & Dragonfly)
• Optional:  Chain to hang mobile

Instructions: 

1. Cut out flower shapes from felt. I wanted multiple layered flowers so I cut 2-3 layers per flower of varying sizes. (I felt like I would never see the end of flower cutting)
2. Glue Flower layers together to create layered flower
3. Add jewel or button to center of flower on both sides
4. Layout flowers and beads for each strand arrangement. I wanted each flower to be divided by a chunky bead.
5. Cut long strands of fishing line (Measure the length you'd like for the mobile to hang and add at least 1/3 longer than what you actually want to ensure that you have enough to make the proper knots and ties)
6. Thread needle with fishing line. String felt flower onto fishing line and make a knot to hold flower into place.  Leave enough fishing line at the top of the strand to be able to tie it to the macramé ring when your strand is complete.
7. String bead onto fishing line and leave desired length between flower and bead and create a knot around bead to hold into place.
8. Continue to add flowers & beads to line until desired arrangement and length is created for each strand.
9. Wrap the extra fishing line at the top of the finished strand around the macramé ring and tie a knot to secure into place. Do this for each of your completed strands and space evenly around the ring to create proper weight distribution to keep it hanging level.
10. Create top of mobile and hanger by tying 4 smaller strands of fishing line evenly around the macramé ring. Gather those for strands together in the center so that each strand is even and the ring hangs balanced and straight.
11. String a few beads to keep strands in place and knot all lines together at the top. 
12. Attach a chain to the top and hang from a hook that is screwed into the ceiling.