Crafting: Circus Mobile featuring Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon

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#imahoarder, acrobat, blending tool, bullseye, charcoal pencil, circus tent, circus tent template, clear nylon thread, craft eyelet, ferris wheel, flying pig, foam tape, Funhouse, GCD Studios, glitter, Glitterazzi, glitterex corp, handmade mobile, hanging mobile, LOveBug Creations, Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon, Martha Stewart, mobile, oh hello friend, Prima, Prima marketing Inc, royal shimmer, tulle, vintage paper straws, wooden macrame ring, wooden spool

Ladies and Gentleman, Girls and Boys! I give you….

The Greatest Mobile on Earth!

(LOL, just kidding)

After spending a few late nights working on my project for Lovebug Creations, I couldn’t wait to take pictures so I could show off all of my hard work. I went outside this afternoon and marveled at our gorgeous weather and I was so thankful for the pleasant 76 degrees in sunny Southern California. I  started setting up and went through my mental checklist. Clear blue sky? Check! Beautiful, warm sunshine? Check! Flowers budding on the apricot tree? Check. Light breeze whispering through the yard?  Check, er, wait. Hold on.  I can’t get the ferris wheel to stop spinning! Argh! You can see the Ferris Wheel trying to get horizontal in the picture up top because my backyard gets a ridiculous amount of breeze in the afternoons!

This week’s project was one of my favorites to make and I’ve been thinking about making a mobile for a while. As it turns out, the most difficult part was taking pictures of it! Who knew? So, I begrudgingly moved the photo shoot indoors.

A mobile is more work than the usual kind of project that I make, but it turned out so amazingly cute and whimsical. To make this mobile, I started with the bullseye and used 4 pieces of the same pattern of paper. I cut out the big bullseye out of sheet number 1, the outer red and white rings from sheet number 2,  the second red and white ring from sheet number 3 and the inner red bullseye circle from sheet number 4. These were layered on top of each other using foam squares and I used my charcoal pencil to outline the layers and smudged them with my blending tool to create depth and shading. I finished it off with LOTS of clear craft glitter.

Next, I created the back of the bullseye with a star patterned paper. I used the layering technique that I used on the bullseye to give this side some interest and depth as well. I used two pieces of star patterned paper and glued the first piece to the bulls eye. Then I cut out stars from the second piece and attached them with foam tape. Charcoal pencil was used to draw around some of the stars and then blended in. Finally, glitter was added around the edges of the stars. An eyelet on top and bottom and some pieces of clear nylon sewing thread made this part complete.

I didn’t add much to the ferris wheel, only a bit of clear glitter to the front of each of the cars and an eyelet and some clear nylon thread.

The wires of the mobile are made from heavy florists wire that I covered with vintage-style paper straws. I painted and then wrapped paper strips around mini wooden spools and hot glued these to the ends of each wire. To create the paper balls, I used my punches to cut 4 circles out of my scrapbook paper. I glued two circles together, back to back. Once they were dry, I used my sewing machine and ran a stitch through two circles (4 pieces of paper) stacked together. Once they are stitched together, you can open them up and give the edges a sprinkle of glitter.

I had some wooden rings, circa 1970-something from my stepmom’s macrame projects, so I painted and glittered these in pink and turquoise. Being a hoarder really pays off when I need to add special and unique details to my projects! (And yes, that IS a circus tent in my living room in the background of this picture. It’s from Ikea and it holds pet beds and toys for my kitties and puppies!)

Monkeys for elephants

Flying pig

I love her!

Woof!

One drummer drumming

The next part was the most fun for me. I’m officially declaring myself a member of the Glitterazzi because I love to put glitter on everything!  The circus animals each got a treatment of an eyelet on top, pink glitter, turquoise glitter, and a generous helping of clear glitter around all of their edges. And, glitter was my secret weapon in this project. Getting the sides of the mobile to balance was difficult, but I added more glitter to some of the circus animals and voila!  They magically balanced! The flying pig got a special costume made from hot pink tulle and glitter. The acrobat got a tulle tutu and she and her prancing horse got a generous sprinkling of glitter and petite pink flowers.

As I’m creating, I usually don’t have a master plan, I just keep going until it looks “finished”. Sometimes I know another detail is needed but I’m not sure what it is. Thankfully, my knight in shining armor, Mr Scarlet Calliope, comes to the rescue. I got stuck a couple times and he’s always great with suggestions. It was his idea to add the circus tent! He’s a genius! (The circus tent on the mobile, not the one in the living room. He’s still wondering what the heck I was thinking when I brought that home!)

To make the circus tent, I found a template online at First Palette. The flag pole is made from a piece of vintage paper straw and two tickets gussied up with glitter.

Here’s another picture showing a mini wooden spool with a strip of paper on it.  I used hot glue to attach the nylon thread to the paper straws. If you’re going to make a mobile like this, allow the glue to cool a little before wrapping your thread around the wire or it will just melt your thread. I wrapped the thread around the paper straw once and then tied it off three times with a simple knot.

The color theme for this week’s project was inspired by the Rumple Ribbons I got from Lovebug Creations. I used the Royal Shimmer collection because Pink is one of my favorite colors and did you know that these ribbons sparkle in the light? They are stunning and  G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S !

Looking at this mobile makes me so happy and I can’t wait to hang it in my craft room!

Ribbon: Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon
Scrapbook paper: GCD Studios “Funhouse”
Clear Glitter: Glitterex Corp
Colored Glitter: Martha Stewart
Paper Straws: Oh Hello Friend
Paper Flowers: Prima
Wooden Rings: Mom’s macrame supplies from 1970 something!

Thank you so much for visiting today.  Let me know if you make a mobile, I’d love to hear about it! Bloggers like to know that someone is reading and enjoying so please leave some love in the comments!

Looking Ahead:  The next post will be all about my trip to Glitterfest last weekend and you’ll get a chance to see some gorgeous art and crafts and meet the artisans! Come back on Thursday or sign up to be added to the email list and you’ll be the first to know!

xoxo,

Christine Barker

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