Up, Up and Away

Just recently Tattered Lace have bought out some clever new dies, which make 3D designs, like the cocktail shaker and martini glass in my last blog.

One of the designs I really enjoyed making samples for was the hot air balloon. I love it if you happen to see one floating around, and it took me back to when we were lucky enough to go in one in Egypt a few years ago. It was so smooth and quiet, apart from the occasional blast of heat, even animals are not spooked by them as they don't know they are there. Luckily for us, even the landing went smoothly!

Once again, you can have these mounted onto a card front, or made up into complete models, which is what I did here

I wanted it to look as if the balloon was literally floating above the ground, so I made a set of two of the cut dies and joined them altogether to make a complete 3D model. I then made a small hole in the bottom of the basket to secure and thread through some invisible thread and also attached some to the inside of the top of the balloon, one strand on each half, so that it would hang evenly. I love the invisible thread for these sort of projects but, boy, is it difficult to work with at times as it is, literally, invisible!

I then made up three identical card bases, each with an oval cut into the centre and scored and folded in the middle. The trickiest part is to make sure your ovals are cut in exactly the same place so when the card bases are joined together, they all fit together perfectly. Then it's just a case of joining the bases, with the strands of the invisible thread securely sandwiched between them and pulled quite tight so the balloon doesn't sag and hangs nicely in the air.