Nesting instincts kicking in? Decorating a nursery can either be ridiculously fun or unnecessarily stressful depending on how much you enjoy decorating and how much luck you have finding the perfect crib sheet to match the cute curtains / rug / pillow you found. One thing that doesn't have to be hard (or expensive) is adding a sweet floral nursery mobile to entertain baby down the road. With only a few materials (most you probably have at home already) and less than 2 hours you can create a dreamy, custom floral mobile.
In my example I choose a sage green satin ribbon and then a cream lace ribbon but you could easily do all green, mint, pink, gray, etc. to suit the colors of you're little girl's nursery. If you're really creative you could also add in some chunky beads or feathers in complimentary colors to really kick it up a notch (but no judgement if you stick to the basic design, it's beautiful on it's own!)
Ready to get started? Download the floral images first, then work your way through the steps below.
Time Required:
- 1 1/2 hours (can easily be broken into smaller chunks of time)
Difficulty Level:
- Easy - if you know how to use scissors you'll be just fine :)
Materials:
- 1 embroidery hoop (size of your choosing, I used an 8in hoop in this tutorial)
- At least 10 yards of ribbon (may need more if you use a really thin ribbon)
- 6 sheets of white cardstock
- Craft glue (I personally love Alene's Tacky Glue)
- Scissors
Step 1:
Squeeze a line of glue around the first 3rd of the embroidery hoop. Take your ribbon and wrap it around the hoop, overlapping the ribbon slightly with each pass to fully cover the hoop. For my mobile I used 1/2 in thick ribbon to wrap the hoop and needed almost 3 yards. Once the first third is wrapped, add glue to the next third, wrap and repeat to cover the entire hoop. At the end, cut the ribbon neatly and glue the end in place.
*From here you can take a break to let the glue dry or move on to Step 2
Step 2:
Download and print your free flower PDF on white cardstock (do not use printer paper, it's too thin and the glue will warp the images). Cut out the flowers - don't get caught up in cutting out every small detail, when the mobile is finished you won't be able to tell how detailed you were with the cuts.
Step 3:
Cut ribbon "stems." For my mobile I used 6 ribbons and each was 44 in long (keep the "stems" longer than you think you need them to make sure you have plenty of room to tie a knot at the end.
Step 4:
Start gluing the flowers onto the ribbon. Each flower has a back and front side; line them up as best you can, glue them to the ribbon and each other, and then trim along the edges if they don't line up neatly.
Step 5:
Repeat step 4 until all 6 "stems" have 2-3 flowers on them.
For extra credit, you can tie a bow in the ribbon here and there to create "leaves." If bow tying isn't your thing, you can also take ribbon scraps and tie them in a knot around the "stem" for a similar look - just make sure to pick a ribbon that won't fray or seal the ends with some glue to keep them looking neat.
Step 6:
Evenly space your "stems" (I'd recommend making 6-8 of them around the embroidery hoop and tie a simple knot around the hoop to hold them in place. Don't worry too much around where you tie the knot. Once all of your "stems" are in place you slide them around the hoop and length or shorten the "stems" as needed to get the look you want. I staggered the length of mine so some were shorter and others were longer. Gather all of the ribbon ends, tie a knot or a loop, and you're ready to hang your mobile!
Not sure how to hang it? You can buy a wooden mobile arm from Pottery Barn Kids (I do not receive a commission if you buy one, I have one for my daughter's room and love it!) or you can use fishing line and a small hook screwed into the ceiling.
That's it! In under 2 hours you created a beautiful, custom nursery mobile. Pat yourself on the back, put up your feet and treat yourself to a "mock-tail!"
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