Gloria's Nursery: Paper Lantern Crib Mobile!

This week off gave me quite a good amount of time to handle some more projects in Gloria's nursery! I  had ONE main goal for Spring Break and Gloria's room though ...

THAT DARNED CORNER!

As you recall, I had plenty of ideas but wasn't too set on one of them yet.  One of my favorites involved hanging embroidery hoops upside down from the ceiling.  I thought it was cute and really unique.  Unfortunately for me, the hubby pretty much HATED it. 

I still maintain this is adorable, but since Evan rarely gives his opinion on things, I was kind enough to listen this time. ; )

So, the hunt continued to try and solve my corner dilemma.  What to do ... what to do.

I put in paper lanterns on etsy and discovered some GREAT paper lantern mobiles.  I thought to myself, HEY, I (also known as Evan and I because I need his help) can do that! And, we did!!!

 This project would have cost about $60 had I bought it on etsy.  We spent MUCH less than that, and I LOVE LOVE the results!

Here's a little tutorial to do your own paper lantern crib mobile:

(1) buy 5 paper lanterns.  I got mine off of justartifacts.com and found a 15% off coupon online to make it even affordable.  Including shipping, all 5 cost $10 .. .$2 each isn't bad! 

(2) when buying the lanterns, buy 2 6", 2 8" and 1 10" lantern.

(3) Send hubby to home depot to buy a dowel and then paint the dowel white.

(4) Go to hobby lobby or michael's and buy a thing of white yarn.  Then, show your husband the picture and he'll do the rest!

(5) ok ok ... that was how I did it.  But I did help Evan put it together.  Fortunately he was the master mind behind it.  Tie a knot around the two dowels to help them stick together. Then make a little etching in the end of each dowel so the yarn can rest in there.  The most difficult part of this project is making it all level.  Just use it like a middle school science project and move the lanterns in or out depending on the weight.  Thank goodness I married a science geek that figured this out!  Science was never my strong suit.

(7) marvel at the result!

Here's a close up to get a better idea:

The beautiful thing about this is it doesn't HAVE to go in a corner!  you can place this behind the rocker, above the changing pad, etc.  Heck, it would even look adorable in a playroom.  You can change the colors to whatever you'd like.  I chose five different colors, but I've seen it look adorable ranging anywhere from 2 to 5 colors. 

I am SO darn happy this pesky corner is now under control!  We did quite a few other projects in Gloria's nursery yesterday afternoon and I'll post those later this week.  For now, I'll keep looking at my favorite DIY element in the room!