Greeting Card Mobile

I was inspired to make a greeting card mobile for baby V after seeing one on another blog. Rather than having the cards from my baby shower sit in a drawer gathering dust, or go into the recycle bin never to be seen again, the mobile allows us to appreciate the cards every day.
For my base, I cut off the top from an octagonal box that a flower vase came in. From there, I used copious amount of hot glue to affix the card cutouts to every surface of the box—inside and out.

The mobile is suspended with an arm that came with a commercial mobile that we happened to have one on hand but suspending it from a hook in the ceiling would’ve worked even better than the arm. Long hanging distance is the key to good movement. The sunshine-shaped parts spin well, but the others don’t have long enough strings. The mobile moves gently with drafts from an open window, fan, or vent. Sometimes I “wind it up” by twisting the ribbon that holds it to the arm.

It ended up taking several hours—much longer than I thought—but it turned out wonderfully.

Detail shots: