DIY Wooden Mobile Hangers - Assembly Tutorial

I thought I'd put up a little tutorial on how to put together the DIY wooden mobile hangers that we sell at our craft store.

Here's an example of one being used to make a jungle animals themed mobile.

Our DIY wooden mobile hanger kits are made from pure, untreated hard wood of an Ash tree that has been grown in an ecological region in Europe, away from heavy industries. No additives, chemicals, dyes or other nasties are added during the making of this product. These hangers are made to European safety standards. The completed hanger measures approx 33.5cm x 33.5cm.

Your mobile hanger kit contains the following parts:

- 4 wooden dowels (0.9cm x 16cm, with a small hole drilled through at the end of each dowel for attaching an ornament).
- 1 wooden cube (3cm x 3cm, which has rounded edges)
- 2 eye shaped screws

You will need some wood adhesive to glue to pieces together. We recommend using a non-toxic adhesive, like the one below.

Assembling your mobile kit is very easy and takes just a few minutes.
Place a small amount of glue in the cube hole..

and push in one of the dowels.

Make sure you line up the hole in the dowel with the hole in the cube, so that your ornaments will hang correctly.

Repeat the process with the remaining three dowels.

Screw the eye shaped screws in pre-drilled holes - one on top and one on the bottom on the cube.

Voila! Your wooden mobile hanger is ready!
We recommend letting the glue dry before adding ornaments.

Flexible mirror material and Crinkle material

We now stock two new EXCITING products!

We now stock the long awaited CRINKLE MATERIAL and MIRROR FABRIC!

The crinkle material makes a lovely, crispy, loud sound when scrunched and is great for using in sensory blankets, or as a stuffing for toys.. A great idea is to stuff a part of a toy e.g. a leg, with the crinkly material, so that the child can discover the hidden sound...

The mirror material is 0.25mm thick. It has an adhesive back and a protective green layer on top to protect the surface while you work with it.

This flexible mirror has so much potential! It is easily cut with scissors and sewn through with a sewing machine.

It is made from a PETG material, which is commonly used in commercially made and sold mirror toys for children. Once again, we have sourced this material from a manufacturer who sells this product to well known toy manufacturing companies..

You can purchase it from www.tomnidesign.com.au

Pull string music boxes

We have received a shipment of pull string music boxes, which are currently being added to our online store..

We have these available in two tunes: 'A dream is a wish your heart makes' and 'Brahm's lullaby'.


Here's a recording of what the pull string music boxes sound like. This is the "A dream is a wish your heart makes" tune..

 listen to the tune on our youtube channel here..

These pull string music inserts play a tune which goes for about 1.5 minutes and is activated when the cord is pulled. As music plays, cord is slowly drawn back into unit. This inserts are ideal for placing inside softies, bears, dolls and all sort of toys, as well as for creating wall and door decorations.

When you put these inside a softie, the toy filling mellows out some of the 'sharper sounding' tones...

For further information, check out the items in our online store - www.tomnidesign.com.au/store, under the 'music boxes' category..

Or to see how these can be used in a softie, check out our previous post here

Teether Corner Pieces - how to tutorial..

The corner pieces have finally arrived and have been added to the online store here

Here's an example of how they can be used - as a corner on a blanket...

Here's a short tutorial on how to add these to your blanket...

1. Make your blanket - cut out two squares / rectangles and placing the right sides together, sew around it, leaving a small gap (approx 10cm) so you can turn it out.

2. Turn your blanket right sides out. Decide which corner you will be attaching the corner piece to. Turn this corner inside the blanket - make sure your edge that you turn in is the same length as the inside of the plastic corner. If using a corner without a hole, you do not need to do this step, as the corner will go over the fabric corner.

3. Sew across the corner. Sew around the rest of the blanket (if you would like to have extra stitching along the edge of the blanket).

4. Line up the plastic corner on top of the blanket corner.

 5. Pre-stitch the holes in the plastic corner. You can do this using your sewing machine (by turning the wheel manually, as otherwise you may break the needle), or you can make the holes using a strong, sharp needle. You may find it useful to use a zipper foot on your machine so you can punch the holes further away from the corner edge.

 6. Sew on the corner using a sharp, strong needle using thicker cotton. It can be a bit tricky sewing through all the layers at once, so try breaking it up. To start, make a knot and sew it to the fabric. Push needle through the first hole in the corner piece, back down through the next hole and through the fabric, and push the needle out the side of the plastic corner piece (picture shows the needle going from bottom up)...

 then keep pushing the needle up through the second plastic lip. Continue until you have stitched all along the corner piece. Finish off by sewing the thread end under the plastic corner lip..

Please be careful when sewing these corners in by hand as sewing though the layers can require some extra force at times..

Feel free to send in your pictures of how you've used these corners in your projects so we can share them with other crafters :)

New Rattle Ball Inserts

We have added two more products to our toy making supplies range..

Clear rattle balls  

 

and bigger white rattle balls.. 

To find our more or to purchase them via our online store (www.tomnidesign.com.au/store) please click on the above links...

Here's also a video showing the sound that these 35mm toy rattle inserts make..

Bird Tweet Column Inserts

We have now added to our range of products the Bird Tweet Column Inserts..

Here's a short video showing the sound they make:

The Bird Tweet Column Inserts come in white and pink and can be purchased from our online craft store: www.tomnidesign.com.au/store

New Jingle Column Design

We have recently received a new shipment of Jingle Column rattle inserts..

Due to requests, here's a video which will give you an idea of the sound that these jingle coloumns make.. the sound slightly differs depending on how the jingle column is shaken...

These have the same diameter (25mm) but are a little shorter than the previous ones. They are white in colour and make a sound just like the original ones! The original cream coloured jingle coloumns will be available while stocks last...

The jingle coloumn rattle inserts can be purchased directly from our store here

Plastic rings and shapes for toys

We've been flat out the this week with making our handmade items for the market, so it's taking me longer than predicted to add the new toy making supplies to the online store.. but here's a few more things we've added since out last post:

Big green plastic rings 

Plastic key ring buckle clips in two different sizes.. 60mm and 53mm

For the complete list of these new product additions, please visit the previous blog post HERE 

New Toy Making Supplies!

We have brought in some new toy making supplies from a manufacturer that produces products for some well known toy making companies...

We are very excited to be adding these products to the toy making product range we already sell...

Below is a list of the new products, with links to the online store... (we'll be adding the rest of products over upcoming days so please check this page soon for more updates):

Rattle rings - one of my favourites! These rattle rings are available in five different colour options and can be purchased by following THIS link 

Linkable shapes - great for adding to toys so they can be attached to prams etc.. These will be available in the shown star shape, as well as square, circle and triangle..

Teething rings that can be added to baby toys.. Available in five colours.. they are listed HERE 

These rings make a crispy ringing sound when they hit against each other.. so they are great for adding on the arms/legs/necks of toys to make a jingling sound... they can also be sewn on and used as a handle... You can find our range of rings HERE 

Big green rings - these are about 70mm in diameter, so they can be used as handles for baby rattles...

They can be found in the plastic rings / shapes category of our online store

Key ring clips / buckes: These are available in two sizes - 53mm and 60mm

 These can be use in a variety of ways, including attaching them to toys, so the toys can then be clipped to the pram, cot etc..

        

There's lots more... so come back soon for more updates... of follow us on facebook so you receive notices about when these are available for purchase!

Small toy rattle inserts on sale!

For the next week you can pick up small toy rattle inserts for only 70 cents each when you purchase a pack of 30 from our craft store..

Press here to go to the rattle listing 

These inserts are great for all sorts of soft toy projects.. they are only 20mm x 12mm so they fit into any small toy projects and make a gentle rattling sound...

We also have lots of other items on sale, so don't forget to have a look through the shop while you're there...

This rattle sale ends 6th of September, 2011..

New Jingle toy inserts - jingle jingle all the way!

I'm so happy to announce that today we are adding a new product to our Toy Making supplies line:

Jingle Columns - special introductory price!!

I am SO happy with the sound these jingle toy inserts make! It's like a multi-tonal, almost melodic sound that's similar to a wind chime... and it seems to make a slightly different noise depending on whether you roll it, shake it one way or the other...

I think they'll be perfect for any soft ball or cube projects!

Each Jingle toy insert is 25mm in diameter x 53mm high.

They are available in single packs, or in a pack of five from our craft shop. 

AND as I think you'll love these as much as I do, I'm offering a special introductory price on these - 50% off the original price, but only for the next 7 days!

In other news:

- 33mm diameter round toy rattle inserts are now available in a 30 pack

- 38mm diameter ball toy inserts (10 pack) are back in stock

- 25mm accordion squeaker inserts (10 pack, side squeaker) are also back in stock

SALE

If you think it couldn't get any better, we're also having a SALE on selected rattle and squeaker insert packs.. but this sale is also on for a limited time only...

Big Squeaker inserts on SALE

We're offering our BIG squeaker inserts at 50% off until 17th of July, 2011.

 

These bigger squeakers make a great squeaking noise and because they are so much bigger than our other squeakers - they measure approx 96mm x 48mm (65mm including the reed part),  it is much easier to find these inside the soft toys. They are made from flexible plastic with a metal reed that makes the squeaking noise when the squeaker is both pressed and released. These noise makers are available from our online craft store and the below link will take you directly there:

PRESS HERE TO GO TO THE SQUEAKER LISTING

Make your own Fabric Covered Buttons!!

Here's some exciting news!! We not only sell our finished fabric covered button products, but we now sell the actual parts so you can make your own fabric covered buttons in the popular size 45 / 28mm diameter..

So if you'd like to make your own fabric covered buttons, hairbands or magnets, head over to our craft store here  then select your category - 'assembly tool' or size '45 buttons'...

If you need any help with making them, feel free to email us via our craft store...

Rattle Rattle Squeak Squeak - rattle and squeaker inserts

The anticipated delivery of the new rattle and squeaker inserts has arrived!
We have now added the following great toy making items to our shop:

RATTLE INSERTS - but in a SMALLER size!!

These rattle inserts are only 20mm wide and 12mm tall, so they are great for those small toys! Because of their size they also make a gentler sound - perfect for baby rattles!!

You can purchase these rattle inserts through here

The next product is the RATTLE BALLS

These balls are available in two sizes - 25mm diameter and 28mm diameter. They make a nice sound and can be used for a range of projects. You can see them in our shop by clicking here


ACCORDION SQUEAKERS

This is a new product range which we are adding to the shop and these squeaker inserts are available in different sizes

 ROUND SQUEAKER INSERTS

These are available in two sizes - 35mm and 45mm diameter. These squeakers are made from clear plastic and make a nice loud sound. The 45mm squeakers are also available in black - now that's different!

BIG SQUEAKER INSERTS

I've found that when making a big toy like our owls, the little squeaker just didn't do it justice as it was too difficult to find it inside the owl's belly. So now we also stock these large squaker inserts, which are just the perfect size for putting inside the bellies of bigger toys..

You can view and purchase all of our TOY MAKING SUPPLIES in our  store. CLICK HERE to go there now... 


NOTE FOR CUSTOMERS OUTSIDE OF AUSTRALIA:

YES! We can post our rattle and squeaker products to countries outside Australia. Please contact us via the "contact us" link in our craft shop for a freight quote. Please advise the destination country and the items you'd like to purchase when emailing us..