{Craft} Hot air balloon decoration

I decided on a hot air balloon and vintage plane theme for my baby's room. This is quite a flexible theme colourwise since pretty much all colours can be used on a hot air balloon. And I thought this was a theme my little boy could grow into, I don't find it too babyish.

I first made him a little door plaque (blogged here).









I then made a hot air balloon decoration to hang in his room.

The cardboard balloon and the papers are from Decopatch, I found them at the Hobbycraft fair at the N.E.C. two weeks ago. I already had some Decopatch glue/varnish.

The Decopatch technique is fairly simple. There are loads of "how to"videos on YouTube, including this one.
In my case the hardest bit was to cut pieces of paper of the right shape for the balloon itself.
I used a tissue to make a first template. It was easy to position and I was able to draw the shape on it. I then cut it and used it to create a more sturdy paper template.

I used the blue and green papers for the ballon since each sheet features 3 designs: spotty, checked and striped.

The orange checked paper had to be for the basket.

And I added a little stripe of hearts at the base of the balloon.

I replaced the original strings with blue ribbon, added a little passenger and voila !