$10 DIY Baby Mobile - JESSIKA REED

I am super excited to share with you a $10 DIY Baby Mobile that I created! And no power tools are needed!

My baby is 6 months old and she just moved into her crib. We recently moved across the country and sold our house and 1/2 our belongings before the baby arrived.

It was a quick move and we got into a small apartment, site unseen! The baby is in our room and I feel so bad that I didn’t get to prepare a nursery for her like her brother got. But that’s okay, you do what’s best for your family at the time and she won’t remember anyway.

Her brother just moved into a big boy bed so we moved the crib into our room and got her set up. I wanted to finally do something girly with the decor for her and something functional that she could enjoy looking at as she soothes herself to sleep. We rent so I didn’t want to put any holes in the wall for this and our ceilings are popcorn (YUCK!) and didn’t want to deal with that. Also, I believe in selling furniture after it’s been used so it needed to not ruin the crib so I can do that later on. I scoured the internet thinking that for sure there would be a DIY Baby Mobile that would be pretty inexpensive and quick, because let’s face it that’s all that fits our little family right now. I couldn’t find anything in the price range I wanted that would attach to the crib.

I was disappointed. Life is crazy and I was looking for someone else to figure this one out for me so I just decided to do nothing. But my brain kept working in the background I guess and I roughed out an idea while meal planning and checking our food inventory in the fridge and started with something like this. (The ingredients are for some testing I did to come up with my Sweet Crockpot Ribs)

As I mentioned before, when we moved we sold about 1/2 our belongings, this included any tools we had besides my hand sander. So this needed to be done with no power tools and I really wanted to make this with things I already had around the house and besides a couple minor things, I was successful and only spent $3. If you did this project it would cost you about $10 for all of the supplies. Here’s what you need and how you do it! (Affiliate links for your convenience – see my full disclosure policy here)

Two pieces of 1×2 wood (mine were 18″ and 10″)
Tissue paper
Embroidery hoop (8″ – only need the inside hoop)
Yarn or string
Screw eye
L shaped bracket (4″)
Screw driver
Nail/Staple gun or hammer and small finishing nails
Elmer’s glue or other clear glue

I was going to keep the wood natural but decided at the last minute to throw a coat of grey paint on. Once that dried, I went to assemble the $10 DIY baby mobile crib attachment. I took the “L” bracket and attached it to the end of one of the wood pieces, making sure it lined up with the edge. I pushed the screw in by hand at first to make an indent, similar to a pilot hole, to make it screw into the wood more easily.

I repeated this with the other piece of wood.

Then I screwed in the screw eye at the very edge of the small piece of wood, on the inside of the attachment (same side of the wood as the “L” bracket). For sure push a screw in to get a hole first as these are a little tricky to get in, especially if they are small.

Then I attached four pieces of yarn to the back of the longer piece of wood that will go on the outside of the crib. Be sure to cut your yarn pieces very long. I only did about a foot or so and it ended up being too short, I’ll show you later what I mean. Just be sure you have lots to work with and you can trim it up later. I nailed these in with my nail gun and small nails to be sure they didn’t pop out the other side of the wood. You can do this with a hammer and nails. I put the yarn about 4.5″ up the back and bottom side of the longer piece of wood. You can hold it up to your crib to be sure that looks right for your crib but you need a little to hang down so there isn’t a chance it could topple over into the crib.

Then I attached two pieces of yarn to the embroidery hoop (just the interior hoop). I looped the yarn through the screw eye and then tied the other end of the yarn directly across the embroidery hoop. Your two pieces of yarn will overlap in the screw eye. After I put this up against the crib, it hung a little too low so I shortened the yarn slightly. You’ll want to see how it fits on yours but my pieces were each 14″ long.

Then I started on the tissue poms. I cut my tissue paper in half lengthwise. Then I took a piece and folded it in fourths and cut out a circle like shape (does not have to be perfect at all!). Mine were about 3″ circles. Makes a few circles for you to work with, repeat as needed.

Take a circle and fold it in half and then in half again twisting the bottom so it fans out like a flower, like so.

Dab a little glue on the end of a piece of yarn and press down. I just used Elmer’s glue but anything that dries clear will work well. Continue adding these pedals until you get a rounded tissue pom.

I made 5 pink and 3 white. I let them dry and then gently tugged on the pedals to see where I needed any extra glue. You want to be sure that everything is secured to the yarn so that a piece of tissue doesn’t fall into the crib and potentially onto your baby.

Then I tied the poms to the hoop at a length that looked good over the crib. Mine are hanging 2-3.5″ down from the hoop. Also, since the hoop and the poms hang from the screw eye, it can lose balance and topple downward and look funny so make sure to hang similar lengths of yarn across from one another on the hoop so it balances well.

I then wrapped yarn around the whole hoop, tied it secure and then trimmed the tie.

When you are ready to secure it to the crib, it’s easier with two people but possible with one. You want to lean the long piece of wood against the crib and then wrap the yarn from the back in a cross in front. You’ll gather the ends around the back and tie tightly in the back. Be sure that the wood is very secure and does not move when pressed or pulled on. You need to be sure there is no chance of it falling into the crib. The crossing of the yarn keeps it on securely.

I love how it turned out! My baby has been really interested in it and when I lay her down for a nap she watches it closely! Of course when I had the camera out, she was distracted and focused on me. (She is wearing the 5 Minute No Sew Headband).

This is her view underneath. You could make any kind of DIY item to hang from the hoop. Fabric animals, shapes, family pictures, etc. would be so cute!

I mentioned earlier that you want the yarn nailed on the back to be long. Well I did mine way too short and could not tie it very aesthetically pleasing in the back. I’ll fix that later but it’s secure and no one will see it but I thought I’d share so you know to keep them long so you have more to work with.

I love this because I had almost all of the supplies at home already. It’s cheap and fast. Took about an hour. It meets all of my criteria. It’s very secure. After tying, I pushed and pulled on the wood to make sure it couldn’t fall into the crib and it stayed put. The hoop spins slightly so it has nice movement for baby’s interest. And it’s cute!

I hope you enjoy this idea.

Comments

Joan says

January 12, 2016 at 3:00 am

They way you attached it to her crip is to me ingenious, I would have never thought of it,it’s an adorable mobile,,,but your baby girl is breathtaking, she’s a doll! 🙂

- Jessika says
  
  January 19, 2016 at 9:06 pm
  
  Thanks Joan – I’m a bit partial to her but I totally agree!

More from my site

Comments

Trackbacks

Leave a Reply Cancel reply