From 2014-2016 I chronicled my crafty endeavors on the site Adventures-in-Making. I’ve selected a few of those DIY’s, Recipes, and other posts to share on the site.

Rainbows are amazing. They’re awe inspiring in the sky, they are a great way to organize things*, and they are just plain magical.

This little recycled rainbow mobile tries to be a few of those things- and has the added bonus of being a nifty reason to doodle.

SUPPLIES

• Thin plastic boxes and containers- like those that salads come in
• Scissors
• 1 1/2″ Diameter Circle Thick Material Punch from Fiskars
• Colorful Permanent Markers like Sharpies
• A scrap ring, one cut from a plastic container lid
• Thin string or baker’s twine
• Thread
• Safety Pin or Awl
• Ruler

Use the thick material punch to cut circles out of every piece of plastic you can find. Don’t worry, the idea of using recycleables for art will make you look insane. Embrace it. (;

Use your rainbow of markers to doodle decorations on each circle. It’s okay if you have an uneven amount of some color because you think orange is terrible, just have fun!

Tie three strings to your top ring, and tie those three together to hang the ring parallel to the ground. Find a place to hang this ring while you work.

Choose one of your most popular colors (purple for me), and poke a small hole near the top of each piece with a safety pin. Cut a piece of thread approximately 12″ long, and string it through one of the holes. Tie the ends of the thread together, and attach it to the hanging ring using a lark’s head knot. Repeat this for each circle of this color.

Choose the next color in the rainbow (blue in my case) and poke each piece like you did before. This time add two inches to your thread for a length of 14″. Attach each of these pieces to your ring.

Continue by adding 2 inches to the length of each new color until you have tied all of your pieces to the ring.

When you have finished, hang it in a bright window and watch it sway and catch the light.

See, sometimes trash-art is fun!

*I may or may not be one of those people who sorts books by color. My librarian mother may be driven insane by this fact.