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Origami Crane Mobile

by | DIY, Home, Kids, Paper

I have to admit, I’ve been pretty delinquent in terms of decorating for baby #2, especially since it’s going to be a girl, and you’d think I’d be all over the pink and the ruffles and oh my cuteness available on Pinterest. ย But no, I haven’t done anything decorative. ย Not. One. Thing. ย I created gender reveal cards, and picked up some pink baby clothes on Craigslist, but that’s it. ย The reason why? ย These kids are sharing a room. ย Yup, that’s right. ย In this age of large houses and every-kid-gets-their-own-room, my babies will learn to share. ย Well, it’ll be more like big brother will learn to share with the little screamer coming into his life. ย But that also means that the already decorated gender-neutral room that has served him so well all of these 3 years will also be more than adequate for the little one coming in the fall.

We never actually did much to decorate for baby #1. ย There was one wall painted blinding yellow, a red Ikea rug on the floor and my big white sofa hogging up space in what used to be a den, aka “get away from the husband while he’s watching horror movies and watch Pride and Prejudice instead” room. ย We replaced the white couch with a white crib, added a black dresser, some Ikea curtains and called it quits. ย The color scheme was “just color”, since I couldn’t decide on a true theme. ย To that end, I hung up brightly colored lanterns and made one of them into a hot air balloon, added the rainbow merry-go-round bookshelf, and a simple crane mobile.

One Dog Woof: Origami Crane Mobile

Inspiration for this? ย Lying in the OB’s office, week after pregnant week, staring at the ceiling and looking at the teeny tiny beautiful crane mobiles they had hanging right above your head. ย Those were made from driftwood and the cranes were maybe only 2 inches long. ย But I wasn’t going to go truckin’ around for driftwood, and there’s no way I could fold anything into something 2 inches long, so I went the easy route.

One Dog Woof: Origami Crane Mobile

First, I dug out my seldomly used origami paper and made a bunch of cranes. ย I found instructions in some seldomly used origami books I had, but I’m sure you can find instructions all over the internet. ย Then I bought this photo mobile from Amazon, which comes with clips at the ends to grab your photos. ย I used the clips to grab on to the cranes instead. ย Seriously simple. ย To hang, I used a 3M sticky hook and some fishing line from the ceiling, and voila – bright and colorful, in stunning 3D, and moves when the AC kicks on.

One Dog Woof: Origami Crane Mobile

For baby #2 – maybe I’ll switch out the cranes for something else that can be hung from clips, but otherwise, there are no plans to add pink, or ruffles or dolls or name signs or anything else that might make J feel like he’s lost his world to a new baby. ย Well, maybe a name sign, but only if I make two.

16 Comments

  1. Marilyn

    ChiWei, this mobile is so fun AND beautiful! I’ve always wanted to learn how to make paper cranes….you should post a tutorial! ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. Rachel

    How beautiful! I love how it looks, and how nice to have the room set to go! I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with my room. I had my mom come help me make a complete list of everything I wanted/needed to do to get it ready, and every time I look at that stupid list, all I want to do is take a nap instead ๐Ÿ™

  3. ChiWei

    Thanks Rachel! The other reason I didn’t want to “do” the room was that I’d have to clean the current room, which is definitely not nearly as much fun as taking a nap! Plus I just feel so overwhelmed with things – physical, oftentimes pink, things, as well as hot wheels and trains and books thrown everywhere. Maybe if the kids share, they’ll limit the disaster to their own room? One can hope.

  4. Adrianne

    Oh, that is so cute!! I have been delinquent in decorating too… and you would think I’d be all over the fun boy stuff, LOL. I didn’t embrace the pink and ruffles with my daughter AT ALL. ๐Ÿ˜‰ I always love your photos too – what kind of camera do you use?

  5. Karen

    Whoa! I had no idea those photo mobiles existed! How smart to use that for your crane mobile. I have folded so many cranes in my lifetime, and love your mobile. I will definitely have to consider getting some of those photo mobiles. Thank you!

  6. Krissy of B-Inspired Mama

    LOVE how colorful this is! Such a great idea. Now my head is spinning with all of the fun ways you could use one of those photo mobiles. ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. Caitlin

    I love this idea! I would really like to try this for my college apartment!

  8. Vague

    I love this because it is something you can do that is baby proof and after you get the origami down, decently easy! Great idea.

  9. Manda Wolf

    That is really cute and such a great idea!

  10. Joanna Poppink

    Thank you for this lovely page.

    I have a beautiful origami paper crane mobile. It’s been hanging in a hallway for many years, and it has accumulated a layer of dust.

    Can you suggest a way for me to clean it without damaging the delicate paper cranes?

    I hope so.

    warm regards,

    Joanna

  11. ChiWei

    You’re welcome Joanna! Hmm, for dust, I would probably try the static cling/dry sweep type of products, like Swiffer. But I wouldn’t know how to get in all the nooks and crannies though. Sorry!

  12. ChiWei

    Thank you Sarah!

  13. Jennifer @ Brave New Home

    Love this project! I think switching the birds out for giant pom poms might be fun at some point, too : ]

    We’re in the exact same situation. Big brother is sooner getting a little sister and we’re thinking about having them share a room, at least while they’re little. All he really does is sleep in there and I think there’s something to be said about sharing space.

  14. ChiWei

    Congrats Jennifer! I’m debating what to switch the cranes out for and pom poms are a great idea! And yes, that was my exact thought – kids can learn a lot from sharing space. But it didn’t work for us actually. Their bedtimes were different and big brother is way loud, so the baby wasn’t getting really good sleep, and they’d set each other off whenever either one cried. I think if I had 2 girls or 2 boys, I’d have them share once the baby sleeps through the night, but we have them separated now. Good luck!

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