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I am very happy with our Foil Fish Mobile, I seriously think I have a “thing” for mobiles and pretty shiny items!
We recently received the book “Recycled Crafts Box” which we won in a giveaway. My eldest preschooler is fascinated by all the things in there, but what caught my eye was a mobile of fish made with various paper clips and nuts and bolts and things. Unfortunately I don’t have much of the recycled items on hand, so I took the fab idea of shiny hanging fish and improvised.
For a Swimming Foil Fish Mobile you will need:
- Foil fish
- scissors and tape
- fishing / nylon line
- pipe cleaners
- pens or markers that work on foil
- a CD
- the kids
To make the foil fish simply draw a shape out on the foil and cut! I kept the scraps of foil for another activity and stored the fish in a little container for later. Foil crumbles easily. I did the cutting while my 4 year old preschooler drew a few “fish”. My 3 year old was also kept busy with drawing (turns out that drawing on foil is a lot of fun) while I cut and made a few master pieces.
To make the top of the mobile I used a CD and 3 pipe cleaners. First, wrap the one end of the pipe cleaner through the center of the CD and twist at the rim to secure, do this with 2 more pipe cleaners. Bring the opposite ends together and twist once more to form a loop.
Cut 4 strands of different length nylon line. Attach one up through the center of the CD and tie to the pipe cleaner (double knot), attach the other 3 to the outer edge of the CD on the pipe cleaners.
Select 4 more pipe cleaners and make them into “sinkers” for your line. I made mine into twirls using one of the pens as the mould. Tie these at the very ends of the nylon line. Next lay your craft on the table to attach the fish. This is our craft table that my husband made from scrap wood, perfect height for the little ones!
Select your foil fish and tape them to the line then get the kids to color them in. In my case the fish got many dots!
Hang your mobile in the window where a gentle breeze can animate the fish and make it look like they are swimming! I got the camera out to capture the little fish moving.
Reshama says
Very creative Nicolette. I haven’t tried this before.. so looking forward to experimenting! 🙂
-Reshama @StackingBooks.com
Tulip says
Those fish look awesome in the breeze! Thanks for sharing this mobile craft at Mom’s Library!
Kristen Jeffery says
Welcome to Collective Bias! I like shiny things too and love this mobile!
Pary Moppins says
I am also distracted by shiny things. 🙂
Victoria from the Busy House Big Heart says
Those look awesome! I want to make them haha