Woodland Baby Mobile

Print the Woodland Baby Mobile for free, or look online for images that match the theme of your nursery. (When printing the template, select no scaling / margins. It’s just the right size for printing.)

I’ve chosen Grafix brand Craft Plastic for this project. Lay your printed image face down on top of the plastic and adhere with masking tape.

I’m using Glaze® pens made by Sakura. Start by outlining the images with the black pen. Go slowly to let the glaze ink  deposit on the plastic. Be careful not to smear the wet ink with your hand as you move on to the other images, as it takes a couple minutes to dry.

Once the outline is dry, you can add outline the details inside the shapes. Turn the plastic as needed to achieve the best angle for drawing.

Allow to dry, then fill in the images with color.

Remove the paper from the plastic. Turn the paper over to the blank side and lay the plastic on top of it. This allows you to see any spots you may have missed. You can add a second coat of color in some areas if you’d like the colors to be more saturated.

Carefully cut out the images. Use a small, single hole punch to add a hole near the edge of each animal. Add it near the center so the animal will hang straight.

Now that our images are finished, we can start working on the mobile. I’m using the inner ring of an 8-inch embroidery hoop, but one that’s slightly smaller or larger would work as well.

You can use acrylic paint to add color to your hoop, but I’m choosing to use Permapaque® Dual Point Paint Markers. This way I don’t have to wash a brush, wait for the paint to dry, or clean up any mess. They also make it really easy to do detail work, so it’s simple for me to add a contrasting color on the inside of the hoop.

Now we’ll make a wire X to hang our animals from. Cut two pieces of wire that are about 4 inches longer than the diameter of your hoop.

Lay one piece of wire across the center of the hoop. Loop one end around the hoop’s frame.

Slide a crimp bead onto the opposite end of the wire. Then poke the looped wire end through the crimp bead. So now the crimp bead should hold two thicknesses of wire. Slide the crimp bead down so the wire loop is snug.

Flatten the crimp bead with pliers, and the wire should have an extremely durable hold.

Next we’ll attach the opposite end of the wire. Add a crimp bead to the loose end of the wire and pull the wire across the center of the hoop. Loop the wire end over the hoop and through the crimp bead. Tighten and flatten with the pliers.

 Now add the second piece of wire. Wrap it once around the center of the first wire, then repeat the previous steps to add the crimp beads to each end.

Next we’ll hang the animals. I’m using clear thread for this. The longest strand will hang in the center. I’m adding triple knots for safety. I’ve chosen to add just one animal to each wire segment, as well as the one in the center, for a total of 5 pieces.

Finally, we need to add twine or ribbon so that we can hang the mobile. Cut two pieces of twine, each about a foot long. Tie them together with a knot in the center. Tie each of the four twine ends on top of each wire loop.

Hang by the twine’s center knot on a ceiling hook.

Please note that this is a home decor project, and is not intended to be used as a toy. Keep the mobile well out of baby’s reach!