KOLA Designs

Here is my favourite gift packaging from this Christmas season….

First, the backstory!  My mom has always had a goal to go up in a hot air balloon.  We came close with a gift in the past, getting her to to an air balloon show, but she has yet to go up in one herself.  This Christmas my dad decided to really put the dream into action and got her some tickets for a hot air balloon ride.  He wanted a unique way to present it, and thus, my project!

I was exploring the many cricut shapes in my library and while I found some hot air balloons, I wanted something more spectacular – something very special.  I pulled down my Sweet Tooth Boxes cartridge while I was working on other Christmas gift wrapping, putting the “assignment” aside for a while, and then POW!  I found the ice cream cone and my excitement for the project was tripled as I saw pieces of an air balloon within the ice cream cone 🙂

I cut out the “sky and ropes” section, as well as the “basket” pieces at 11.5″ and then the actual balloon, knowing it should be bigger in comparison, was cut at a much larger size.  I used my gypsy so that I could cut the two images from the balloon as big as possible, cutting one at a time stretched as large as possible on a 12×24″ mat.  I cut those shapes out twice, once in yellow and once in red, so that I could adhere red sections appropriately over every other stripe so as to create a more balloon like feel.  I used my cuttlebug to add some texture to the basket piece (it was so large I could only do half at a time), and then added ribbon to the sky section to create the look of ropes.  The top of the balloon opens up to provide a space for gifts or notes.

Here’s the story of the presentation:

It is well known in our family that my dad is not a fan of heights and this wouldn’t really be his number one choice of activities.  To present my mom with the gift, he put the balloon (with a paper doll representing mom) into a bag with a pair of binoculars and one ticket.  He explained as she opened it, the binoculars were so he could watch her from the ground 😉
In a seperate bag, he then had the other ticket, and his (reluctant) paper doll character to add to the balloon’s basket.
How sweet, right?!

*note: dad currently has more hair than his paper doll depicts, but as I assume with the stress and the chance that he may actually pull his hair out as they head up in the balloon, this is a representation of the future 😉  LOL