Making Ballons 2.0

 

On the Friday night before Easter I decided it was time to finish Marcus's Easter Surprise.  I wrote a blog last week about the beginning of the project when I made my demo balloon.  After that demo balloon I decided I needed to buy larger Chinese lanterns to really do a good job with this project.  The small one was super cute and I bet Marcus would have a ton of fun playing with it but it just wasn't a great option for a hot air balloon basket- the basket was just too small.

I looked at stores and quickly learned that 10" was the largest carried in stores so instead I had to order them off of Amazon.com.  I got two, one 16" and one 20".

It took a few days to get these in and once I had them it was go time (especially since Easter was only 2 days away).  I learned a lot doing the demo and because of that I made a few improvements.

• I picked up a bit of paper mache paper (any other light paper would work too) for the top of the balloon.  The felt was just too hard to work with and it was a pain.
• I got regular glue for the glue gun-  good bye glitter glue sticks.
• I picked up more pipe cleaners.  I was not sure exactly how I would use them but figured they were a good tool to keep around.

Once I got everything pulled together AND Marcus to sleep it was time to work. I didn't take pictures of the process this time (only the results) but here are few things I learned along the way.

• I had picked out a few baskets because I was sure what was the right size.  In the end I ended up using the baskets that were the best design for the project.  If you do this the best baskets to use are woven. This gives a great place to tuck the support into (and glue of course).
• Depending on the size of the balloon and the size of the basket you need to make accommodation.  If you look at the finished basket you can see on the green balloon (16"). The supports go up to the outside of the balloon and are reinforced with pipe cleaners, that is because there was no way to tuck them inside the balloon.
• I would advice getting difference sized balloons (i.e. Chinese Lanterns) to try,  Here are a few things I learned:
• 10" Chinese Lantern-
• Positive- Most structurally sound and in many ways because of that easiest to work with.
• Negative-  Because of it's small size limited the basket.  It was also difficult to put my fingers inside because it was tiny.
• 16" Chinese Lantern-
• Positive- Probably my favorite Chinese lantern to work with because its size.  This was also a pretty tough balloon structure.
• Negative-   The hole at he bottom was pretty small- necessitating in big changes to how I actually made the balloon.
• 20" Chinese Lantern-
• Positive- Because of its size it was far easier to stick my hand in a maneuver around the balloon.  Also because the hole at the bottom was so big could easily get the sticks in place.
• Negative-  The structural aspect of this Chinese lantern are not good.  This is the most likely to be destroyed quickly by Marcus. The actual Chinese lantern would barely stand up.
• I also added hanging hooks at the top so we can hang these in the bedroom is wanted - or like Marcus did, he can drag it around the house while it "Flies" by this.  I just used pipe cleaners for this one.

OK enough details-  Here is the balloons actually turned out like.  The green one is for cousin Liam and the white one is Marcus's.  Overall I am very happy with this project.