Cluttered Mobile

Hey there, it's Marquette. A while back Emilee and I were planning a baby shower for my sister (party planning...another love of ours!) and I came across this awesome idea for decorations:

The Original Pin:

http://www.marthastewart.com/265650/the-modern-baby-shower 

Aren't those cute?! I love how clean cut and simple they are, but they still add such fun color and pizazz to the room. I read the tutorial and decided to jump on the idea, making a few changes that I thought would work better. First wrong step, right there.

The Pinstrosity:

http://madebymarquette.blogspot.com/2011/07/baby-mobiles-tool-themed.html 

What Went Wrong:

• The largest embroidery hoop I could find in town wasn't all that big, and I didn't have time to order one online, and I didn't figure 1 hoop was worth the 2 hour drive to the "big city" to a Hobby Lobby. So I went with the 12" hoop. I was grateful though that I could find this hoop at least. 
• I decided to make 2 mobiles, but I only had one hoop, so I used the two pieces of the hoop individually. But then I wanted to try and hide the places where I tied the string on, so I hot glued ribbon around the edge. It sorta worked, but I think the look of the plain hoop would've been better. 
• I decided to try using foam craft circles instead of paper for the circles. I thought they'd be more durable and look a little better. The foam circles only came in one size though, so I started hacking away with my scissors. I drew lines to follow, but a lot of the circles still came out wonky. 
• Then, I tried painting the circles to match the shower colors. That went okay...but it was a huge pain in the neck. I had to do multiple coatings on some to hide the color below and finally on some I just gave up, so the paint isn't completely uniform...it's kinda splotchy in spots. 
• I didn't cut the strings long enough. In the tutorial it says, "Remember, you want the mobile to have various lengths of circles to make it visually interesting." I thought I was making my string lengths different enough, but they still all kinda hang in a clump together. 

How to Fix It:

• Use a larger hoop if at all possible. It will look so much better. 
• If a larger hoop isn't available, make the circles smaller and maker sure to have a more dramatic difference in the string lengths. 
• I really should have bought that circle cutter from the scrapbook section...then my circles wouldn't be so wonky. 
• Paper circles rather than foam circles would have been better. The foam circles were heavy enough that they didn't spin around much. They just kinda hung there.