How many times have I said it now? I. Love. Mobiles. And not just your standard nursery mobile. I love mobiles all over the house; adult mobiles, if you will {but not that adult}. I just like pretties of all kinds and if they hang from the ceiling than all the better. I think it’s the Danish in me. My grandmother had dozens of paper mobiles from Denmark, which I now have hanging in my own home.
So, of course when it came time to decorate our nursery, I had plenty of mobiles in mind. When my friend, Jenn, had her little girl last year, I made this sweet Paper Flower Chandelier {inspired by, or more accurately copied from a Pottery Barn piece I’d seen} and I had the same idea for one using owls in our nursery. My mother saved the mobile from when I was a baby, so I was planning to reuse that as a decoration in the room as well. A few pomander kissing balls and an existing paper star chandelier would help to complete the room, but I still felt like something was missing. I needed one more baby-distracting element.
Which is how I came up with this origami star mobile. Here’s where I landed. It was time-consuming to make, but crazy cheap and I LOVE, Love, love how it turned out.
Here’s how it all went down. I originally had the idea of making a wishing tree/baby keepsake using 3D Origami Stars. Because they use a long sheet of paper, I thought it would be easy to have people write a wish for the babies and then I’d fold them into stars and place them in a jar for the girls to read when they got older. But, once I started making them, I saw the perfect mobile. The stars can be a little tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, they move pretty quickly. I made mine using white sketch paper, but they would be cute with magazine, newspaper and scrapbooking paper as well.
- Cut your sheet of paper in half lengthwise, then repeat this process with each “half” until you have 3/4″ to 1″ wide strips of paper.
- Take a single strip of paper and tie a loose knot into the top, so that you have a short tail hanging down and a little nub pointing up. Gently press down on your knot.
- Fold the small nub back so that it lies across the back of your knot.
- Fold the long tail over the opposite side, so that it lies across the front of your knot.
- Continue to fold the long tail over the knot, following the outside line of your pentagon.
- When your reach the end of your tail, simply tuck it into the existing fold on your pentagon.
- Using your forefinger and thumb, gently press the sides of your pentagon until is “inflates”. You should see your 3D star emerge.
Once I had all my stars made – I used about 100 3D origami stars for this project – I grabbed some blue thread for the starts to hang from. Each piece of thread holds about 10-12 stars and I used 8 pieces of thread. I tied each piece of thread to a 6-inch metal craft ring.
For the top of the mobile, I decided to use the yellow pom poms I’d saved from my baby shower decorations. I attached two of them together and then tied the star mobile to the bottom. It’s a bit of an anomaly; yellow clouds and nighttime stars, but that’s the beauty of DIY crafting.

[…] The mobiles were DIYed by yours truly. You can find the Owl Mobile HERE; the 3D Origami Star Mobile HERE; and the Pomander Kissing Ball HERE. The Pallet-Canvas Owl Art was a collaboration by my artsy […]