Paper Bird Mobile

Have you seen those cute Paper Chandelier Mobiles on Etsy but don't want to spend $63.00 plus shipping to get one? Well you can make one for under $20.00 with supplies purchased from a local general store and a little bit of time.

Step 1: Gathering the Materials

Materials:

Scissors

Ruler

Tacky glue

1 in heart punch

Bird template* (provided as an attachment)

Card stock in four different coordinating colors

12 inch quilting/embroidery ring (inner portion)

Satin ribbon in the same four colors as the card stock

Fishing line (a lighter weight will be more transparent)

*If you have a Personal Electronic Cutting Machine like a Cricut or Silhouette Cameo you don't have to do so much work cutting out the birds!

Step 2: Cutting Out the Body and Paper Punching the Wings

In this step you will print off the template for the bird's body on the 4 different colors of card stock.

Once you have printed them off you will need to cut them out. It goes very quick because there are not a lot of edges you have to cut! The birds are 1.5 x 2.5"

Or if you have a Cricut or Silhouette Cameo you can have the machine cut them out for you. I don't have one of these machines but I know that you can use the Silhouette Cameo for anything and I know that there is a bird body template for the Cricut available.

Using the heart shaped punch, punch out twice the number of hearts then bird body's.

Fold the hearts in half as shown in the picture.

Glue the heart onto ONLY ONE SIDE of the bird's body using a strong glue (I used Tacky Glue). There is no correct way to place the wing. You can place it as far left or right whatever you think looks the best.

Let them dry for a bit.

I need 12 purple, 13 white, 17 green, 8 lavender birds so double that for wing punches.

Step 3: Attaching the Birds to the Fishing Line

You are going to attach the birds to the fishing line in this step.

I started with the bottom bird and the end of the fishing line.

To attach the bird place the fishing line vertically along the center of the bird's body and then glue the other heart/wing on top of the fishing line.

You may have to press and hold, for the glue to adhere.

To attach the other birds I used a ruler to measure 6 inches from the top of the bird to the bottom of the next bird. Once again place the fishing line vertically along the center of the bird's body and glue the other heart/wing on top of the fishing line.

Keep doing this until you have 4 birds to one strand, make sure to leave excess fishing line so you can attach it to the quilting/embroidery ring.

Make 13 strands, I used a pattern for my strands and then hung them in a particular order.

My strands were 40" long but when tied to the embroidery ring were 34-36" long.

The pattern I used was I made:

Outer ring:
2 green, white, lavender, green

2 white, lavender, green, white

2 purple, green, white, purple

2 purple, green white, lavender

Inner ring:

2 white, purple, green, white

2 green, lavender, purple, green

Center bird:

Purple, green, white, purple

Step 4: Now the Hard Part

Attaching the birds to the ring was the most difficult, because it takes patience to tie each piece of fishing line. It may be easier to staple the line but I don't have a strong stapler or you may even be able to attach using hot glue because it will be covered up by satin ribbons.

To make it easier I measured and then sawed little grooves every 4.5 inches.

I then tied fishing line from one side to the other to create a line across the middle. I did this again half way around the hoop to create an X of fishing line across the top of the ring. This is where you will hang the inner birds.

Then I started to attach the strands of birds by tying the lines to where I sawed the grooves, make sure to tie your knot with 2 inches of line from the ring to the top of the bird.

You should have 8 strands of birds attached to the ring. (you can see which patterns of birds I put on the outer ring in the slide before)

Step 5: Add the Inner Birds

It helps to hang your mobile up to attach the inner strands of birds.

Hanging from the X you will attach 4 strands of birds. One on each of the four lines of the X.

You want these strands of birds to hang farther down then the strands attached to the ring.

I hung them based on how it looked but you could use 3-4 inches from the ring to the top of the bird as a measurement.

I had some trouble with the lines slipping so you could put a dab of hot glue on it or just make sure your knot is very tight like I did.

Finally you are going to hang the center bird. You want this one to hang the lowest. So I had probably 5-6 inches of line between the top of the bird and the ring. I just tied it to the center of the X.

Step 6: Adding the Ribbon

Now gather your satin ribbon and cut 6 inch pieces angling the ends of each of the four colors. Depending on how you want your mobile to look you can have as much ribbon as you want. It took a lot to fill the whole ring.

I tied my ribbon on in a certain order. My pattern was: Dk purple, White, Lavender and Green

Step 7: Final Step

Add a satin ribbon hanger.

I just used the Dk purple in a longer length and tied from one side to the other.

Then I tied another piece halfway around the ring from one side to the other.

I also used an additional piece of ribbon to tie a small bow at the top to center the crisscrossed pieces of ribbons!

Enjoy! I hung this above my daughter's crib. My mobile is pretty lengthy but I wanted it to take up a lot of space. You may want to shorten the space between the birds if you want a shorter mobile.

Caution: Make sure your little one can't reach the mobile. Once my daughter was tall enough to be within 6 inches of reaching the mobile I moved it to a different area in her room. She still enjoys seeing me blow gently on the mobile to see the birds fly!