A Homemade Paper Star Mobile
5 Materials
$50
2 Hours
Easy
When my youngest child was born, I got an itch to make something handmade, creative and unique for his nursery. While I am not usually an avid crafter, I found an instructional tutorial online that taught me how to make this paper star mobile. While I tweaked the design just a little and changed the way it was hung from the ceiling, I am still more than pleased with the way this turned out. Here are the basic steps I took to create it.
First, I gathered my materials. While the only real materials you will need are craft paper or cardstock, four wooden rods and a spool of thread, this is where you get the opportunity to be creative. You’ll need about five to six sheets of paper, preferably in the colors that you design your nursery in. As my husband and I had decided to wait and find out the gender of our baby at birth, we designed the nursery in shades of green, yellow, gray and white.
We also used these three colors throughout the entire pregnancy, decorating with those hues at our couples baby shower and even using them on the custom party invitations we used to invite guests to attend the event. So, we used these same colors for our paper star mobile as well. I was able to find all of these materials at our local hobby store.
Then, I used a specialty hole punch to create the star-shaped cutouts. While it is definitely possible to create this mobile by hand, it is infinitely easier to enlist the help of a hole punch to make the job much quicker. It also helps to ensure that all of the star shapes are uniform in nature. If you are going to cut the stars by hand, I would recommend layering more than one piece of paper on top of one another, folding the stack in half and cutting half of a star along the folded seam so that when you open the stack up, you have an assortment of multi-colored stars that are the same length and width.
Next, I used a standard hole punch to create a small hole at the top of each star. Make sure you adjust your hole punch to around the smallest setting possible before starting on this task. All you need is a small hole to string the yarn through. Just adjust it down, position it near the top and you should be good to go.
Next, I prepared my wooden rods. These usually come in the form of natural wood at the hardware store, so you can get a little creative when painting them to make them match your decor. I opted for a neutral tone of gray for mine. The idea is to keep these rods as discreet as possible so the stars are allowed to take center stage. Spray paint worked the best for me with this project as I was able to get every angle covered. Let the rods dry for around 8-12 hours to ensure no paint smears or smudges when you go to the next step.
Then, I started the stringing process. For this mobile, I just used simple white thread to attach the star cutouts to the wooden rods. You will need to create a small hole at the top of each star you cut out, then tie a small knot to secure the paper cutout to the thread. From there, string about 10 to 15 stars per piece of thread. The number of stars you use will be dependent upon how long you want your mobile and where you intend to place it within the nursery.
We live in an A-frame house and as such, my son’s nursery had slanted walls, so we had to move the mobile from above his bed to behind him, where it sits amid a blanket ladder and sound machine. From there, set the stars and strings to the side. Next, you will need to create the top of your mobile. This is the place where all the stars will be attached. For this project, I just laid three of the four painted wooden rods flat and added one rod on top to anchor them all. Then, I adhered them to each other using a basic glue gun.
After waiting a few minutes to make sure the wooden rods are properly attached to the top piece, you can start looping the ends of the star strings over the three bottom rods, being careful to alternate strings to make sure there is a colorful and interesting pattern throughout. I just looped the free end of the string around the rod, tied a knot and continued this pattern until all three rods were complete.
Now comes the fun part! You will anchor this mobile to the ceiling via an in-wall hook. How? By looping decorative, thick ribbon around the rods. We chose to use yellow ribbon to accentuate the gender-neutral theme in our nursery. This project would look so pretty with a bright pink or blue ribbon as well. Make a triangle by laying one long piece of ribbon on the top, with sides extending and tying onto the ends of the top bar.
That may be all you need to comfortably hang your mobile. However, I choose to hide the end piece of ribbon just a little by wrapping it around the three middle rods as well. This gives the mobile some dimension and helps hide the stray piece of ribbon. Ultimately, this was a cute, simple and cost-affordable alternative to a pricey mobile. Made with love, we hope our newest addition adores it as much as we do!
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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