Make a mobile with Kitiya Palaskas

Hi everyone! My name is Kit and I am thrilled to be the new guest blogger here at Paper Runway. I’m looking forward to sharing my inspiring paper finds with you each week and creating vibrant, colourful and fun DIY projects for you to make each month, starting today!

My fellow Sydney-siders will back me up here when I say that we have had what can only be described as the worst Summer ever. Stormy days and rain clouds have darkened our tropical moods and we’ve replaced glamorous swimwear with gumboots and emergency ponchos. So, to salvage the essence of Summer I’ve created this colourful mobile project. Use a kaleidoscope of coloured card and neon thread to instantly brighten any grey day. Liven up your favourite room on a cloudy afternoon or hang this pretty ornament in a window and watch the pieces spin in the wind.

You will need
Mobile shapes template {dowload link here}
Assorted coloured card
2 x 25cm pieces of balsa wood dowel
Coloured sewing thread
Needle
Scissors
Stapler
Sewing machine (optional)

Step 1

To create the mobile pieces, use the templates provided to cut 10 of each shape from coloured card. We used two different colours for each shape – 5 of each colour. Fold each shape in half.

Step 2

Stack one coloured shape on top of another and staple together twice on the fold line.  Repeat with pairs of different coloured shapes until you have 15 mobile pieces. For a different look you could use a sewing machine to attach the shapes together, as shown with the finished product.

Step 3

Using the edge of a scissor blade, make a 0.5cm notch in the centre of each piece of dowel and smaller notches at the each end.

Step 4

Position the pieces of dowel to form a cross, with the centre notches facing each other. Cut a 70cm piece of string and double over. Wrap the string around the centre of the cross, making sure to bind tightly from both directions to strengthen the bond. Tie in a tight double knot and trim the excess thread.

Step 5

Using a needle and thread, link three mobile pieces together to form a strand, leaving 7cm of string in between each. We doubled up our thread for strength. As you thread, make a knot at the bottom and top of each mobile piece to stop them from sliding up and down.  Leave 20cm excess thread at the top of the strand for tying to the dowel.

Step 6

With each strand, wrap the excess thread around the ends of the dowel, slotting the thread into the notches made in step 3. To finish, tie in a tight double knot and trim the excess. To hang, tie a double piece of thread around the centre to form a loop.

Kitiya Palaskas is a craft-based designer living and working in beautiful Sydney, Australia. She loves polkadots, tropical souvenirs and eating dessert for dinner. She can often be found buried under piles of paper scraps, pom poms and haberdashery or frantically bedazzling everything in sight.   See Kit’s work on her website or read her blog.