Vintage Hot Air Balloon

I made this Vintage Hot Air Balloon tutorial for Crafts Unleashed a few months ago and it has to be in my top 10 favorite craft projects I’ve done! I just love how sweet and whimsical the Vintage Hot Air Balloon looks and could totally imagine it in a little girl’s room or for a “Love Is In The Air” shower. This post may contain affiliate links for you convenience and to help maintain this site.

Need a vintage hot air balloon to decorate for a baby shower or a little girl’s room? You’re going to love this tutorial! You can completely customize this Hot Air Balloon to fit any theme or style. You can even make it functional by adding a small light (like the Mini Party Accent Lights or LED Tea Lights) to the inside and turn your hot air balloon into a lantern. So sweet!

Supplies needed to make a hot air balloon:

• White 8? Paper Lantern
• Tissue Paper
• Spray Adhesive
• Baker’s Twine
• Paper Mache Cupcake Box
• Scrapbook Cardstock
• EK Tools Flag Punch
• Acrylic Craft Paint
• Large Needle
• 1/16 Power Punch
• 1/4? Double sided tape

1. Cut out strips of your desired color of tissue paper. Lightly spray the back of each strip with adhesive and press into place. (It helps to follow the existing seams to keep the papers spaced evenly.)

2. Cut four pieces of the twine, each one approximately 4 ft. long. This is going to give you more than enough string to work worth and you’ll have to cut off a ton at the end but at least you won’t have to worry about not having enough! Tie them together with a knot and loop through the hook in the middle of the lantern. Tie two strands together right where the tissue paper part of the lantern starts. Separate these two strands and then tie each to the adjacent strands. Repeat to all sides until knots reach halfway down on lantern.

3. Paint the paper mache basket, with acrylic paint in your choice of color, and use the Power Punch to punch four evenly spaced holes in the rim. (You could try to do this with just a sharp object, but the Power Punch is really quite awesome…and you don’t have to worry about puncturing yourself!)

4. Using a large needle, string each of the twine groupings through the punched holes.

Knot in place and cut off extra twine.

5. Punch 9 flags out of scrapbook paper, fold edge, and secure in place on twine with double sided tape.

6. Hang the pennant flag strand around the hot air balloon and hang somewhere special!