Tuesday 23 April 2013

Paper Lantern Hot Air Balloon


We've been trying to do regular art projects with the kids.
They love getting to pick through fabrics, match colors, glue things, and make a mess.
I love seeing their creativity and personalities shine through their art.
Last night we made some cute little hot air balloons that will eventually hang among clouds and lights in the playroom.


Here is the how to:
    For each balloon you will need:
1 paper lantern 10, 14, or 16 inch
Fabric/pendants/decor
2 long pieces of yarn ~30"
cardboard square 3-5 inches
burlap square cut 4 inches wider than cardboard
hot glue and craft glue
scissors

 We used craft glue to attach our decorations.
Didn't want to burn little fingers!

To make the basket:
 Start by gluing your card board (hot glue) to the center of your burlap square.
Next, you will fold in each corner, tuck and glue.
After it is glue is cooled, snip off the corners inside.
It will look like this:
  
To attach the basket:
 
Find the center of each piece of yarn. 
Glue to center of the bottom of the basket.
Then glue at a diagonal from corner to corner.
    Repeat with second piece of yarn going from the other corners, forming an "X" on the bottom.
Now you will glue your yarn up the sides of each corner.
 This is what you should have:

Now you just need to glue it to your lantern!
I did this 5 different ways....this is one way.
You want to make sure you are keeping your yarn even.
Measure and mark each string or just eyeball it, like I did.
 Be sure you are attaching it to the BOTTOM of your lantern:
 

Glue strings in a + pattern around center hole.
Giving 5-6 inches between basket and lantern.
 (Pretend the gluing looks perfect. Photographing and gluing at the same time is tricky.)

Now just run your strings up the side of the lantern and glue at the top!
Ta-Da!
We hung ours up to "finish drying" along the living room.
Which really means until the light fixtures arrive and I actually hang them in the proper place in the playroom.



I order my penants and lanterns from the Knot.
Very worth it for the colors and buying a lot at once!
Otherwise, I'd go to the local craft store. 


This post was originally published on The Crafty Woman

3 comments:

  1. How fun! I want to make one of these! I thought I'd follow you on Bloglovin' here as well. I'm co-hosting the Bloglovin' hop and look forward to more fun crafts!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is awesome. My son was asking me today to make floating lanterns. Maybe this would fulfill the need for him and be a little less dangerous. Where do you get your lanterns?
    With Love,
    Scary

    ReplyDelete

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