100% Wooden Mobile Frame / Stand Tutorial

Direct from Europe comes this 100% wooden mobile stand/frame - the PERFECT companion product to our wooden mobile hangers!

This wooden mobile stand/frame is made entirely from pure, untreated hard wood - the same wood that is used for making our wooden teether rings and mobile hangers. It has been cleverly designed to allow the frame to be attached to the side of virtually any bed, crib, cot etc., without losing its safety features.

These wooden mobile stands / frames are available from our online store.

The mobile stand will arrive to you un-assembled and each kit includes the following pieces:

All of the pieces are made to fit easily and it will take a few minutes to put them together.

Take pieces A (the one with the pre-drilled hole at the end) and piece C. Twist one of the screw sides of piece C into the ball part of piece A.

 This is what it should look like when you finish.

Take the other side of part C and twist it into the ball part of part B. You should now have an 'L' shape.

Twist part D (long screw) all the way through part B, until it hits the end. Twist part F over the screw until it reaches the side of B (the flat side of part F should face away from part B). Place the flat side of part F against your cot slats and twist part E from the other side of the slats over the screw,  ensuring that the two parts (E and F) press firmly against both sides of the cot slats.

Cot slats will be between these two parts - parts E and F.

You can hang your mobile hanger (sold separately) from the mobile frame.


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For safety's sake keep all decorations away from reach of young children and do not hang any mobiles directly above a child. Please do not attach the mobile frame in a location where it could be moved out of place by children. Please ensure all screws are firmly twisted into place and check attachment of mobile frame to cot on a regular basis. Should you notice any damage to the product, please discontinue its use.

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.

Mirror stickers - Tutorial

I mentioned in an earlier post that our new mirror material with adhesive back can be used for making wall stickers. Here is a picture of the tractor sticker I made, which found its way to the front of my son's wardrobe...   :)

So here's my simple tutorial on how I made the sticker.

I used the tractor template that I found on Cindy Ferguson's blog. Cindy has kindly shared some free paper cutting images, which I found were great for making mirror stickers. Here's the link to the tractor and a lot of other designs: http://papercutting.blogspot.com.au/2010_02_01_archive.html


So to make your sticker you'll need:
- a template (I used the tractor outline)
- a sheet of mirror material *
- double sided adhesive sheet *
- scissors, cutting knife and a self healing mat / cutting board


* These products are available from our online store: www.tomnidesign.com.au

So let's get started :)









1.  I like to use the mirror material and adhesive resourcefully, trim the paper template and adhere it to one side of your double sided adhesive sheet.

2.  Trim the template.

3. Peel off the backing from your template and press it down on the 'wrong side' of your mirror material sheet.

4. Cut out your sticker by cutting along the lines. I used a combination of scissors and cutting knife to cut out my shape.

5. Here is the finished result - This is the back

and here is the front showing the nice mirror material.

6. To adhere the sticker, peel off the adhesive and mirror backings. You can re-use the adhesive backing template on a new mirror sheet by peeling off the adhesive that was originally attached to the mirror (the adhesive will still be sticky so you can re-use the same 'sticky template' on a new mirror sheet).

 7. Position the sticker on a flat surface and peel off the protective layer.

It's that simple! If you make these stickers, feel free to email me some pics :)

Camper Pincushion Tutorial

Today I'd like to share a link to Amanda Herring's post..

 
She shares a fabulous tutorial for this gorgeous camper pincushion!
This would make a super cute gift, but I think I'd struggle to give mine away if it turned out this good! Here's the link

Tutorial: Adding crinkly to your projects

Today I'd like to show you how you can incorporate the crinkly material (available from our shop at www.tomnidesign.com.au) into your projects..

I've been making some elephant softie squeaker toys lately and thought that the crinkly would make a nice addition..

Adding the crinkly is really simple and I'm going to show you how I sewed it inside the elephant ears, but the same technique could be used with other toy parts that are made from two pieces of fabric, such as blankies, taggies, wings, fins, etc.. You can also use the same technique to sewing the crinkly to toy segments e.g. parts of a soft ball, so that it will crinkle when you hold that area of the toy...

1. Sew your two pieces together as per usual. Here I am sewing the front and back of the elephant ears together.

2. Once the pieces are sewn together cut a piece of the crinkle material - I like to cut it a little bigger than the fabric.

3. I like to double stitch my seams when I made baby toys, hence the two lines of stitching in the above pic.

Now to sew the crinkly - Place the crinkle material on top of the fabric and sew through all three layers just outside the original stitching line. This way when the kids pull on the ears when they play with the finished toy, they won't be pulling on the stitching that attaches the crinkly.

4. I like to scrunch up the crinkly a bit when I sew it in, to give it a little more 'slack'.

5. Once you've sewn the crinkly in place, cut off the excess. It's as easy as that!

Here are my pieces ready to be sewn into another elephant.. :)

Sensory Blankie Tutorial - mirror, crinkly and more!

Here is a tutorial for how to make a sensory blanket using a number of products from our online store.. For anyone new to our shop and blog, you can purchase the featured items from our toy supplies store at www.tomnidesign.com.au

Today I'll write what I did to make this blankie, but it could be made with a range of items (like teether rings or flowers, and in different sizes..

** I added some Amendment comments to this tutorial in October... **

I forgot to take a 'here is what you'll need' pic, but here is the list of the items I used:
- crinkle material
- mirror material
- green teether ear
- bias binding (I used white one, that was 0.5cm wide when folded)
- grosgrain ribbon strips (approx 7cm long x 5 colours, from own stash)
- coloured fabric (from own stash)
- yellow minky (from own stash)
- sewing machine, thread, needle

Cut your two fabric pieces and crinkly material to size. Mine was a square measuring about 27x27cm. Sew the crinkly to the left side of the fabric, about 0.5cm from the edge. The crinkly can be a little slippery, so I found it easier to sew the pieces together with the crinkly placed on top of the fabric. I also used a double layer of crinkly, so I ended up with an extra loud blankie.

** October Amendment: I found it can be easier to manage the pieces when you sew in the Crinkly once your project pieces are sewn together - see for the next comment down a few steps **

Here's what the fabric with crinkly sewn all around it looked like.

Now to make your mirror - Trace a circle on the mirror material with a permanent marker. Cut it out.

Peel off the adhesive backing and adhere the mirror to fabric (we adhered it to the minky). Cut off the excess fabric.

Sew the bias binding all around the mirror, removing the edge of the protective film as you go along. I recommend leaving most of the protective film on the mirror while you're doing the sewing. Keep going with the bias binding until it covers about 1cm of the binding you sewed on first.

Gently pull the bias to the side and keep sewing the two bias sides to create a cord about 7cm long.

Your finished mirror should look something like this. I also made another bias cord by sewing the bias pieces together which I used to attach the rattle ring to the blankie.

Arrange your ribbons, ring, teether ear, mirror and any other parts on the right side of the fabric.

Sew the pieces to the top of the fabric, about 5mm from the edge. This will make sure that the pieces don't move around when you sew on the other fabric (in my case the minky). I sewed the green teether ear on the corner of the blankie. I placed it about 7mm from the edges. I sewed across the wider part, a few stitches across the thin part in the middle of the ear. You can see I also did a zig zag stitch across the thin part just to make sure it was sewn in well.

Place the fabric pieces (right sides towards each other) and sew them together about 7mm from the edge. Make sure you leave a big enough gap along one edge to be able to turn the blankie inside out.

** October Amendment: You can sew the Crinkly on top of the fabric at this step... Just make sure you don't sew over the gap you left for turning the blankie inside out **

Turn your blankie inside out.

Sew the gap by hand. I then sewed across the edge of the right side of the blankie for extra durability.

And here's the finished product! :)

Let us know what you think - we'd also love to see your versions of this blankie..