How to create a baby mobile from old cards

I love the occasional creative project. When I was 8 months pregnant with my first, my doula and I sat down and mapped out the final weeks of pregnancy. Day by day we made a calendar of things to do while I prepared and waited - write a letter to my baby, do yoga, have lunch and a walk with a special friend. 'Make a mobile' was written on the calendar for the day I reached 39 weeks. It's lovely to schedule some special things to do while you wait for your baby, but you might not get to do them. At exactly 39 weeks, my daughter made her appearance, and the mobile was long forgotten.

So this time around I started a bit earlier and I'm happy to say made the mobile in time. Here it is.

I went for a bird theme and I made it out of old cards that my mum had saved from when I was kid. Some of my first birthday cards have now been cut into bird shapes and transformed into this mobile. I very much enjoyed looking through the pile of cards mum had saved. The same names appeared year after year. How special to look back and see cards from my aunties from when I was born, turned 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. 

What I used to create the mobile:

- a box of old birthday cards. 

- a circle for the top that I bought from Spotlight

- white ribbon that I twisted around the circle and super glue to secure it

- gold string, bought from the craft shop

- an assortment of beads that I have collected over the years

- the circle part of a keyring, used to hang it

- a bird shape template that I found on google images

I went with a bird theme, but you could choose any shape, colour or design you like. Once I had gathered all the bits and pieces I invited my two closest friends around to help. I decided it was a great excuse for a creative afternoon, a catch up with friends, and a time to drink tea and eat cake.

Here's what we did:

- Decided on a design and colour theme. I decided on a multicoloured / patterned bird theme, but again, you could choose anything you like.

- Covered the top, wooden circle. I did this by wrapping it tightly with white ribbon (secured with super glue at the start and end)

- Using a template to ensure each shape is the same, we cut out the shapes. For each bird we cut out two shapes (back and front of each bird) and two wings.

- Before we glued the back and front of each bird together we layed out each string of the mobile. We treated the beads and tied knots to secure them on either side of the birds. We then glued the back and front of the birds together with the string between them. We made 8 strands, each with three birds. Some were short with the birds close together and some were long. 

- Tied each strand to the circle at the top.

- Tied four strings of equal length to the keyring circle and then tied the other end of each string to the white circle (equally spaced around the circle). Now when I held up the keyring I could see that it was ready to hang.

And, voila, just like that, we'd transformed old cards from my childhood, into something special for my baby. 

.... Now my baby is born and here she is enjoying her mobile at 3 weeks old.