Nursery DIY: Capiz mobile

I'm not sure who figured out that crumpled wax paper looks a lot like a capiz shell, but that person is a genius. I've seen plenty of DIY faux capiz chandeliers in blogland, so I decided to try making a mobile for Hannah's room (which is kind of like a chandelier without the light). While the result is totally worth it, the process isn't as easy as most of the tutorials make it seem. It's that type of repetitive, piddly work that becomes frustrating if you do too much of it at once. In other words, it's a good project to work on in small spurts, over a couple of days.

Full directions after the jump, along with a few troubleshooting tips...

Materials

• Roll of wax paper
• Embroidery hoop or another object to hang your shells from (driftwood would be really pretty)
• Circle punch
• Iron and ironing board
• Thread and sewing machine
• Fishing line (optional)
• Ceiling hook

Directions

1. Tear off and crumple three sheets of wax paper. Smooth out your sheets and layer them on top of one another.

2. Iron your sheets together. Most of the tutorials I read recommended placing a piece of parchment paper between your iron and the wax paper to prevent sticking. I skipped the parchment paper and didn't have any problems, but I've also had the same iron since college. If your iron is of this decade, maybe go for the parchment paper.

3. Using your circle punch, cut out your "shells". You'll want to put a stiff piece of paper under your wax paper when cutting. Otherwise, the wax paper tends to get stuck in the punch. Repeat steps 1-3 until you have enough circles (to save time, I punched through three sets of ironed wax paper and one stiff piece of paper at once). The number of circles you'll need depends on how long you want your strands to be and how full you want your mobile to be - my number was in the hundreds :)

4. Sew your circles into strands by feeding them into the sewing machine one at a time. Remember to leave a tail of thread long enough to tie the strand to your embroidery hoop. I alternated 8- and 10-inch strands around the outside of my embroidery hoop, then used thread to make a cross in the center of my hoop and tied several longer strands to the thread. Fishing line is a stronger option, but I couldn't find mine (the thread is holding up fine so far). I tied everything to the hoop's inner ring so that the thread is hidden from view when the hoop's outer ring is on.

5. Once you're happy with your mobile, attach fishing line to hang (again, I used thread, but fishing line is a much stronger option, especially if you're hanging the mobile over baby's crib). Drill a pilot hole into the ceiling and screw a ceiling hook in by hand (I actually used a leftover cup hook, so that works too).