Baby Mobile Hot Air Balloon

By: Rebekah Meier for STYROFOAM Brand Foam

This Baby Mobile Hot Air Balloon is a wonderful way to welcome a new little one into his or her new nursery. Hang it from the ceiling to help keep the baby occupied as it wanders off to sleep. Great for giving as a new baby gift, this lovely hot air balloon is easy to customize to suit a little girl or boy, and a whole assortment of them would look striking hanging from the nursery ceiling.

Materials:

STYROFOAM Brand Foam Ball, 5"
STYROFOAM Brand Foam Block, 4" x 4" x 2"
Papers, one sheet each: decorative stripe; pink cardstock; rice paper, two sheets
Acrylic paints: pink; light green
Ribbon: green/white polka dot grosgrain, 1/2" x 1/2 yd.; pink satin, 1/4" x 1 yd.
One package white medium ric rac
Four pearl-head corsage pins
White crochet thread
Paper glues: laminating; quick-dry
Silver screw eye
Large rubber band
Serrated knife
Candle stub or paraffin
Pencil
Ruler
Wide flat paintbrush
Disposable palette
Water basin
Paper towels
Scissors: standard; small and large pinking
Low-temp glue gun and glue sticks
Industrial-strength glue

Instructions:
For safety reasons, remove this or any mobile from crib area as soon as baby begins pulling up on bars; relocate mobile to high corner of room for decorative use.

Wax serrated knife with candle stub or paraffin. Cut one 2" cube from foam block; set remainder aside for future project.
Tear rice paper sheet into medium-sized pieces. Use wide brush and laminating glue to adhere paper pieces to foam ball, completely covering surface. Use brush to smooth out wrinkles. Cover 2" foam cube in same way as ball. Let dry completely.
Place rubber band around center of ball; mark center with pencil and remove band. Use rubber band and pencil to divide one half of ball into quarters.
Paint bottom of ball and alternate upper sections light green. Paint remaining sections pink. Let dry completely.
Cut a 1-3/4" x 9" strip from striped paper. Wrap and glue strip around foam block, aligning bottom edges and overlapping ends. Wrap and glue grosgrain ribbon around top edges of block, overlapping paper edge; trim excess.
Cut two 1-1/4" x 8-1/4" strips from striped paper; overlap and glue two short ends together to create 16"-long strip. Cut one edge of strip with large pinking scissors to create pennant look. Wrap and glue pennant around center of ball as shown.
Wrap and glue satin ribbon around center of ball on top of paper pennant; trim excess. Repeat with ric rac, layering over ribbon.
Cut two 8-1/4" lengths from ric rac; glue ric rac across top half of ball where paint colors meet, trimming excess. Insert corsage pins into ball at each end of ric rac lengths.
Cut four 9" lengths from crochet thread. Wrap one end of crochet thread around each corsage pin. Pull corsage pin out slightly and apply a small amount of industrial-strength glue behind pin before pushing in again.
Poke small hole into center top of ball. Apply small amount of industrial-strength glue into hole before firmly inserting screw eye. Let dry completely.
Use small pinking scissors to cut one 2-1/4" square from pink cardstock. Poke small hole in each corner of square. Pull crochet thread ends through holes and knot to secure. Be sure paper hangs level from balloon.
Apply paper glue to back of cardstock and adhere centered to top of foam block.