Tutorial: Christmas Trinket Hoop Mobile

If you have come here via the Christmas craft blog hop on Bugs and Fishes - welcome! Nice to have you here. :-)

Okay, I'll be honest, this is more of an inspiration post than a very detailed tutorial. If you're a bit of a crafty magpie like me, you've probably got a lot of the things I've used. But you don't have to use the exact same things, use whatever you have in your stash. I call this the Christmas trinket hoop mobile, but you could easily make it to go with any season of the year.

What you will need:
1 embroidery hoop - not too big, 4"-5"
Mini pompom trim long enough to cover the outside circumference of the hoop
Sewing thread
(Wood) glue
Yarn or string
Ribbon, I used red and white gingham
A mix of little trinkets:
- felt balls
- pipe cleaners
- small glass baubles (I bought mine in a pound shop)
- little gems/plastic crystals
- gold bells - I keep the ones from the Lindt bunnies, reindeers etc!
- other bells - I had some, also from a pound shop, that I painted neon pink
- small pine cones
- small paper stars
- you could also use buttons, bits of tinsel, felt shapes, even little toys

Anything small and light goes, really. The mobile is more than the sum of its parts. Pound shops (dollar stores) are great places to look for little bits and pieces. And do look in the supermarkets when they sell the Christmas stuff at reduced prices, often you can get a real bargain once Christmas is (almost) over. :-)

You can use all different colours or stick with just a few. I used mainly red, white, green and pink for my Christmas mobile.

Glue the pom pom trim to the outside of the inner ring of the embroidery hoop. You don't need the ring with the hardware. Leave to dry for a little bit.

Cut 3-4 pieces of ribbon, about 8" (20cm) long. Fold them in half over the edge of the hoop. It's best to use ribbon that's not too wide, so it will fit between the pom poms. Put a small dab of glue on the insides of the ribbon, just below the hoop and press the two ribbon sides together. Note that the ribbon isn't glued to the hoop itself, only around it. (And yes, I forgot to take a picture when gluing the ribbon on my hoop, so this is a reconstruction... a tribute, if you like. ;-) )

Let all the glue dry. In the meantime you can prepare the trinkets.

The basic idea is: string some bits onto thread and tie to the hoop. For example: string different sizes of felt balls onto thread. Or 2-3 little bells on thread. I also made a tiny ball of yarn with some leftover yarn. :-)

A few other ideas.

Pull thread around the top of a pine cone, draw it tight, tie a knot. Remember to leave a generous amount if thread on your strands of trinkets so you can tie them to the hoop.

Make a pipe cleaner heart:
Cut a 5"-6" (12-15cm) piece of pipe cleaner
Shape it nto a circle and wrap the ends around so it stays in place
Bend the top and bottom of the circle downwards to make the heart shape
Adjust to the exact shape you want
Attach thread to the top for hanging

When the glue on the hoop is dry, start tying the strands to it, tie one in each of the gaps between the pom poms. Make sure to use varying lenghts of strands so there are no unfilled gaps.

Tie four pieces of string or yarn to the hoop for hanging it. Hang out of reach of children and pets. And grownups who are likely to bump into it. ;-)

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and if you make a mobile I would love to see it! You're welcome to borrow one or two photos if you want to link back to this tutorial, but please remember to credit me and link back to this post. Do not re-post the entire tutorial, thank you.

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