Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Hot Air Balloon Lanterns

I thought having some hanging hot air balloons in Sophie's room would be fun.
Something cute for her to stare at :0)

I found these cute balloons but they were a little pricey and small.

I started to think up how I could make some myself and came
up with the idea to use paper or nylon chinese lanterns.

Then I thought, it'd be cool if they actually lit up too and doubled as night lights!

I ordered a few light kits and some lanterns in different shapes,
I already had some small round lanterns in my closet.


.The green one came colored already, and I remembered to take a pic
 right after I had painted on the blue stripes, hehe.

All I did was paint them up with acrylic paints.
Painting on the nylon lanterns was a lot easier than the paper lanterns btw.

I then used dimensional paint to add some fun details, 
and a thin sharpie to draw on the "netting".

Finding baskets was hard, lol -I finally found some at Hobby Lobby in San
Antonio while we were on vacation! They were a blonde colored wood so 
I just painted them a darker shade.

After the lanterns were nice and dry I just poked some 
string through them and tied the baskets on. Hanging them from Sophie's 
chandelier made this process a lot easier!


Here it is all tied up :0)

I hot glued on some "sand bags" made
up of scrap fabric and a little poly fil and some little flags. 
Those were made quickly and simply with
paper and markers...that's all there was too it! 


This was a really fun project. They still don't have the light 
kits attached but I hung them up anyway just to enjoy their
cuteness :0). Sophie seems to like them too!

Here they are in their new home..



Now here's some cute pics of Sophie to enjoy :0)







:0)

9 comments:

Lisa @ Fern Creek Cottage said...

Oh my goodness she is so cute!! Do you just sit and kiss those cute widdle cheeks all day long? Well I guess you wouldn't have had time to make the awesome hot air balloons if you did that, lol. Your balloons are so cool!! Once again I am blown away by your talent and creativity.

Debra Lea said...

Actually, that is what I do, hahaha..the balloons were finished before she arrived, just not hung :0) ..it's very hard to not just kiss her all day long!!!

The House That A-M Built said...

Oh she is heavenly... so beautiful. You are so clever to create those balloons! Apology from me, I have a new iphone and attempted to publish your comment on my blog this morning and accidentally deleted it. My fingers are too big for the little buttons on the phone. My hubby also told me he got a text from me that just said 'Ga'... I am hopeless with new technology. A-M xx

Fallon said...

I was looking forward to these! They turned out so great. I love your paint job. As she grows old, she'll love them too!

maría cecilia said...

Dear Debbie, can I be Sophies step grandma?? I would so looooooove it!!! She is adorable!!!!!
And your lanterns are... wow!!!... soooo beautiful, really!!!!
muchos cariños
maria cecilia

Anonymous said...

I've been searching in google for some ideas and fortuitously found this debralea.blogspot.com blog. I have to say that it's a unique blog! I love how appointed each of the entries are. They are well balanced, both informational and amusing, and the pictures are cool too.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Just spent all afternoon painting similar balloons to these for decorations for our church camp...then I googled it, and up popped your beatiful pictures! You did a great job with these, that paper is hard to paint on! It stretches! Ours don't look as pretty, but I am excited about using them as decorations.
Charlynn
California

Debra Lea said...

Thank You ;0) I really loved making these.

SmartAsana said...

These are adorable! (almost as sweet as your little one.)