Categories
Craft Paper Tutorial

Paper balloon mobile – handmade gift idea

One of my favourite Christmas presents this year was this book: Everything Oz, The Wizard Book Of Makes & Bakes. Ever eager to have a reason to try out new craft projects (though sometimes no reason is needed!) I chose the paper balloon mobile to make as a gift for my friend, who’s just had a baby boy. Armed with some adorable but subtle blue pram-printed paper from good old Paperchase, I set to work.

I’ve decided that I’m not going to post a full tutorial on here, because I really think that if you like crafts then you’ll love this book- it’s a great investment. However, I’ve done little pictures of my progress, so you can get a good idea of how these are made.

So. Here goes. Basket first:

The base is a circle with tabs round the outside, which are attached to a long rectangular strip of paper (nice surface on the outside!).

Next, I made the swags to go around the edge of the basket:

I did 4 of these, evenly spaced. Ish.

Then on to the balloon! Using a variety of papers works well. I used blue printed, sometimes inside out, plus some plain silver.

I adapted the balloon bit slightly, using the method from the paper beads I make.

All that was left to do then was to attach the basket to the balloon:

Ta da! I’ve added a few embellishments, a silver paper bow to cover up a gap in the swags, where the string was glued on and also some teeny triangles for bunting: