Make a Treasure Moblie

So, here's the big question... 'What do you do with all those little treasures your kids collect?'

This is a biggie in our house. My kids are big collectors! Every trip to the beach results in a basket of shells, each hike brings pine cones, rocks and bark and even a walk-around-the-block leads to the discovery of some sort of treasure.

Of course I can't throw anything away! Oh no!!! The misery that would ensue from me throwing away a special rock or stick would be, quite honestly, detrimental to everyone's health! So, what do I do with the mounds of 'special things'?

Make a mobile!

Here is the mobile we made today...

It's hanging on our door in place of a wreath... isn't it lovely.

So, to make a treasure mobile you need:

* collected treasures
* copper wire (which is wonderfully pliable and can be found at hardware and craft stores)
* pliers
* sticks
* string
* scissors

Once you master the wonderful trick of wrapping your treasure in copper wire, anything can be added to hand on your mobile.

Start by cutting off about 6 inches of copper wire with pliers. Hold one end of the wire in the pliers and twist it, making a hanging loop. Easy!

Now, hold the loop against your treasure with your thumb and wrap the wire around it. Make the same loop at the bottom end for it to hang. Easy! Seriously, even Kitty finds it a breeze.

Here she is wrapping a shell...

When you have wrapped all your treasures in copper wire to make them hangable, use your string to tie them onto your sticks... you'll need at least one long stick for the top hanging bar, and two smaller sticks for the hanging bars below. We used our yarn-wrapped sticks from before to add a little color.

Now for the fun part... you have to hang your mobile and see how it balances... this was a great learning opportunity for Kitty as she worked out how to make all the different weights of her treasures hang nicely. One rock was too heavy and a thread spool had to be added to the other end for the stick to hang straight. The shell was also too heavy and needed to be moved to the middle. All this, Kitty worked out by trial and error. It was magic for me to see her grasp this difficult concept.

At last, all her treasures were perfectly weighted and her mobile hangs beautifully.

10 treasures down, 1000 to go :-)

Blessings and magic,
Donni