*Reposted from February 16, 2015
Last Thursday I had a small DIY workshop in a university in Bangkok. It was part of a book reading campaign held by http://www.happyreading.in.th/. The theme was ‘Give books as gifts’. My job was to design and demonstrate gift wrapping and bookmarks DIY workshop. I came up with this hot-air balloon idea at the last minute. The idea was to have a quick and easy gift wrapping that has a little surprise…
That is the balloon can be pulled out and used as a bookmark :) This was not really a wrapping, just an ordinary paper bag which, with a touch of some design, could turn into a cute gift package plus a keepsake.
This is very fun and easy to make. All you need is just a plain brown paper bag, 2 sheets of pretty paper. I cut mine from lovely bakery box I had kept because of its lovely pattern. The paper is quite thick and perfect for making a 3 dimension heart balloon. Smaller sheets of colorful paper for leaves, an ice cream stick, paper for heart envelope.
First, fold the paper in half, pretty pattern inside. Then draw a half heart starting from the paper crease. Cut it out. You will have a full symmetrical heart when unfold.
Cut out another heart using the first one as template.
Put 2 hearts together by applying glue only at the center line. Now you have a 3D heart.
Cut out leaves from another paper sheet using the same method of making heart shapes from the earlier steps to have a symmetrical leave. Glue the heart and leaves on the tip of an ice cream stick and you will have a heart-shaped flower as a fancy bookmark.
Next step is to turn the flower into a hot-air balloon. Try positioning the flower on the bag to see how it looks. I put the top of the flower a little beyond the bag’s top part so that the flower (turning into balloon) looks like it’s floating. Cut 2 thin lines just long enough for the flower’s stem (the ice cream stick) to slip in and out as pictured. This will hold the flower stem to the bag. Draw a basket to complete a hot-air balloon. Cut another line on the top of the basket and slip the ice cream stick further in to hide its bottom tip.
The last step is to insert a cute little envelope in the basket hiding the protruding ice cream stick at the same time. The envelope is made of a heart-shaped paper. If you don’t know how to make it, here are the simple steps.
Now our hot-air balloon is ready to send some love!
This design is the main part of the project. I also have another 3 small diy bookmarks to talk about in the following post. Meanwhile, here are photos of the workshop and you can have a glimpse of what the bookmarks look like. I am really happy to see smiling faces while making bookmarks I design :)
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