Christmas Hot Air Balloon with Michelle

A big hello and welcome back.

I'm surrounded by Christmas greenery and papers and I'm well and truly in my happy place.

This season the Couture Creations have gone with a gorgeous traditional Christmas range and it really should be added to your stash

I hope that you find my creativity featuring the gorgeous Naughty or Nice collection inspirational and if you do, how about you take the plunge and make one for yourself. Go on ... it's easy.

Here's my Christmas 'hot air balloon'.

The base is a peat pot or some people might call it a seedling pot.

Paint with gesso and let it dry.

Using a paint brush apply True Snow and then sprinkle a mixture of glitter and diamond dust to the outside - wait for it to dry.

You need to weight down your hot air balloon - I have glued in a number of big nuts and bolts.

Cut a polystyrene ball in half and glue in to your peat pot.

Make a small hole in the middle of your ball to allow for your hot air balloon to sit.

Dab a little liquid glue and then sprinkle in some Christmas coloured baubles to cover the polystyrene ball.

Cut a balloon shape to use as your working shape and then cut the same shape in a variety of Christmas papers - you will need ten shapes in total.

Score each shape in half and adhere to the next shape using double sided tape.

Use a piece of dowling from the base into the middle before sealing the final shape together. The piece of dowling will be glued down into your peat pot.

Glue a big pearl onto a toothpick and then wet glue into the top of your hot air balloon.

Using wet glue adhere a piece of lace around the edge of your hot air balloon.

Hand thread a long string of small white pearls and loop and drop between each segment - I have added a stitch [or two] to every second section of lace to hold everything together.

Cut a variety of green Christmas foliage and adhere underneath a Christmas poinsettia on the alternate balloon section.

I have also stitched in wee silver snowflake embellishments on the threaded pearls.

Adhere a few crafting fibres in and around the bottom of the hot air balloon and the peat pot.

Adhere the 'Season's Greetings' die cut from the ephemera collection.

Adhere a small piece of holly and a pearl to the front.

Using a toothpick randomly True Snow on your hot air balloon and your crafting fibres and then sprinkle with Couture Creations tinsel glitter for a little more sparkle.