Pottery Barn Butterfly Mobile

I'm quite certain you all know about the wonderful mommy site, luv in the mommyhood right? But if for some reason you've been under a rock then please go check out Shannon's Baby Bonanza that she has going on right now, there's all sorts of wonderful baby project for you to do & this tutorial is from my guest post over there. (Thank you SO much Shannon for letting me write on your site today, what an honor! Woohoo!)

Ok, so tell me, have you seen the beautiful paper mobiles that Pottery Barn Baby always has? They're just gorgeous, so airy & just plain PRETTY. But that pretty also comes with a $60 price tag...for paper cutouts. I couldn't justify it so instead I chose to make it. Here's a quick (ok, not really quick, it's kind of a lot of steps but totally worth it) tutorial so you can make your own.and here's Pottery Barn's...*Update: I just looked online & the butterfly mobile I'm knocking off is on sale for $40. If I'm completely honest with you there were several times I was cursing myself for not shelling out the $40 but at least now I can take pride in knowing I made it myself. At least that's what I'm telling myself...

You'll need:

*1 Wire Wreath Base
*Punches of your choice (mine are the large & small monarch butterfly punch from MS)*Cardstock
*Fishing line (jewelry aisle)
*Pennies
*White spray paint
*Wreath doo-dads for decor (optional)
*Hot glue gun/sticks

1st step is to spray paint your wreath base white. Next start punching away! It's important to use a good cardstock paper (verses printer paper) so your punches will have some durability to them. It's hard to tell how many you'll need so I just punched a whole slew & then as I used them up I would punch more.

To assemble the top of the mobile tie 4 separate strings to the top of the mobile making sure they're evenly spaced apart. The length is really up to you, I cut super long pieces (around 2') at first & then trimmed them down later. Pull the 4 string together & make sure they're even by letting your wreath form dangle, it should hang evenly. If not adjust the strings accordingly. Once you get them right tie them in a knot at the top, then tie a loop with the extra string. This is what your mobile will hang by.

(I hung mine temporarily from the kitchen chandelier so I could work on it & still be near Samster)

Now time to string some butterflies. Take a 2' piece of line & knot it to the top of the mobile on on the of the rings, string on your butterflies by either weaving the line through the punch-made openings or to make them look like they're flying you can make a small hole in the center of the butterfly's body with a needle, thread the string through that hole & then double knot the line under the butterfly so it can't slip down.Another technique is same type of process as making a "stop bead" for you beaders out there. Basically, string the butterfly & then thread your line back up through where you came out of, when you tug down on it the butterfly should be secured into place.I think the finished product looks best if you vary where, how many & what type of punches you use. Also attach your lines to the different wreath rings so some hang a little further back than others.

*To keep my lines from getting all sorts of tangled while I worked I taped change to the bottom of the lines.

Once you get as many lines strung & hung as you'd like it's time to permanently weigh them down. I really gave this a lot of thought...maybe glass beads, or several punches glued together...hmmm. What I finally decided on was to glue a penny between two large punches with the string glued in there too. You can do this by gluing a punch to one side of the penny, place glue on the other side of the penny, then the string, then another punch...almost making a butterfly sandwich with the penny & the string in the middle. In hindsight I wish I would've laid out all my pennies & given them a quick coat of white spray paint 1st but instead I went back & painted each butterfly sandwich white after they were glued on to camouflage the copper pennies. I suppose either way gets the job done.The last step is optional, I really liked how the one from PBKids had a bit of pink berry looking things at the top. I dug into my silk flower stash & found these leftover from my Fall wreath. A bit of blue spray paint & they were perfect!I also took a few leftover butterfly punches & hot glued them along the top of the mobile, if you bend their wings back a bit they look like they're perched right on top. Super cute in my opinion.This mobile is actually for me, I want to hang it over my work table in the craft room but that requires me getting out a ladder to reach the ceiling. P is all weird about me climbing ladders while 8 mths pregnant. Go figure. So for now that's why I had to photograph it out on the back deck...does make for pretty pics though.