Month: August 2022

with Gwen Studios

I can’t believe it is time to craft for Halloween! In this house we love cats and we aren’t afraid of black ones. In fact, we used to have a black cat. As a member of the Gwen Studios design team, I was asked to craft for Halloween or Fall. I chose to make this black cat mobile. While everything I used is black, it turned out rather cute and not scary at all!

Gwen Studios ribbons can be found at Walmart and Michaels. To see all the projects made with Gwen Studios ribbons, make sure to visit the Designer Crafts Connection website.

Materials:

• wooden cats (Dollar Tree)
• black paint
• Dragonfly Glaze Paint (FolkArt)
• foam brush
• Black Satin Ribbon (Gwen Studios)
• Embroidery Hoop
• Scissors
• Quick Grip Glue (Beacon)
• lighter (Dollar Tree)

At first, I thought all I needed was to paint the cats black – which I did. I painted them front and back and made sure to cover the edges as well. Then I decided to try the Dragonfly Glaze Paint on top of the black paint and that really finished off the look taking the flat black surface to something magical! I painted the embroidery hoop exactly the same way.

While the painting of the cats dried, I tied eight small bows from the Gwen Studios black satin ribbon. I used a lighter to finish off the ends of each bow so the ribbon doesn’t fray.

To begin the construction of the mobile, I took four very long strands of the black satin ribbon, folded them in half, and tied a knot leaving a loop at the top for hanging. At the very top of the loop where the ribbons are layered on top of each other, I used the Quick Grip glue between each layer to keep the ribbons in place.

Evenly separating the ribbon strands around the embroidery hoop, I tied and knotted, and balanced the hoop. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I secured each knot to the hoop using the Quick Grip glue.

Each ribbon strand has a cat and bow attached at random lengths. I altered the direction each cat is facing. Looping the ribbon through the hole in the cat and tied a knot. Before making the knot tight, I slipped a bow into the knot loop. To finish off the ribbon, I cut the excess ribbon off, used a lighter to seal the end, and then glued the ribbon tail up onto the long strand of ribbon.

Here is a close-up of the finished mobile cats. You can see how the cats are staggered in different lengths. When they touch each other the wood gives off a clicking sound that is subtle and pleasant.