While designing our nursery, I knew I wanted a mobile above our crib but really despised the ones I found in stores and online. I wanted something simple and gender neutral. I found some awesome ones on Etsy but they were super expensive (ranging from $50-80) for something I knew I could create on my own. I googled pouf ball tutorials and found a few helpful sites and decided to just try it on my own. I am very pleased with the result and saved a ton of cash. It took about 6 hours total to create and cutting was the most time consuming part.
Here are the helpful tutorials I found:
MATERIALS
Styrofoam Balls (1.5 inch) – $1 (for 9)
Embroidery Hoop (just need inside) – $1
Acrylic Paint – I bought white from a craft store – .69 cents
Fishing wire, Rope, Yarn, Ribbon (I used Fishing line)
Fabric – I got a yard of white and a yard of yellow and it was more than enough - $6
Glue Gun - $3
Glue Sticks - $5
Scissors – already had
Something round to trace - already had
Ceiling hook - already had
Total cost: less than $17 (and I even had to buy a glue gun)
STEPS
Step 1:
I painted my embroidery hoop with white paint first so it would be dry when I am done, it doesn’t take very long to dry so really you can do this step at any point
Step 2:
Find something round to start tracing your circles onto the fabric. Trace a ton of circles, I am not exaggerating either each individual pouf will need about 30 circles.
Step 3:
Cut out all your circles, this doesn’t have to be perfect because they will be folded so don’t feel like you have to spend extra time making them flawless.
Step 4:
Take your circle and fold in half, apply a small dab of hot glue in the middle of that half and then fold over again (see picture). Do this for all of your circles.
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| This is enough to make 2 poufs |
Step 5:
Apply dab of hot glue to one of the Styrofoam balls and apply the folded fabric. I found holding them in the center and apply the point to the ball was the easiest and then you could fan it out to the way you want it to look (see picture)
Continue this step until your ball is filled with no Styrofoam showing and until you have enough poufs for your mobile. I made 6 total fabric poufs, which was about 180 cut out circles.
Step 6:
If your paint is dry on your hoop, tie fishing line across the top to make quarters. I applied extra hot glue on the inside of the hoop against the line to make sure it was secure. This is how you will hang your mobile to the ceiling. Set aside.
Step 7:
Apply fishing line to your individual poufs, I left my string really long so I could adjust when I hung them. I found a trick to attaching the line to the pouf was applying hot glue to the inside of a piece of the fabric on the ball and then sandwiching the glue and line in between it.
Step 8:
Tie fishing line securely onto a ceiling hook (like the ones you use for plants). Make sure you have extra string so you can adjust to the height you want.
Step 9:
Screw the hook into the ceiling into the place you want to hang.
Step 10:
Tie line from ceiling to the middle of your quartered hoop securely to the height you want above crib.
Step 11:
Apply each individual pouf onto hanging hoop at the height you want. After they are all attached you may need to move them to get it to sit evenly and balanced.
Ta-Dah! You have a super affordable mobile!!
j+k
