**Creating a Glamorous Hot Air Balloon Christmas Ornament**

As a holiday craft enthusiast, I recently embarked on a project to create a glamorous hot air balloon Christmas ornament. With some patience and perseverance, I was able to bring this vision to life. In this article, I will guide you through the step-by-step process of making this beautiful ornament.

**Preparing the Ornaments**

The journey began with selecting two identical Christmas ornaments that would serve as the base for our hot air balloon design. I carefully examined each ornament and decided on their perfect placement. I started by attaching a small piece of metal to the bottom of one of the ornaments, positioning it at the top. This transformation was crucial in creating the illusion of a floating hot air balloon. Next, I grabbed another metal piece from an adjacent ornament and inserted it into the newly created opening, securing it firmly.

**Creating the Basket**

The next step involved crafting the basket that would hold our hot air balloon. I carefully unfolded the gold cap from one of the ornaments and bent back four evenly spaced tabs to create a circular shape. This was followed by drilling small holes through each tab, which required caution due to their small size. Once the holes were drilled, I gently bent the tabs back up to form the basket's foundation.

**Adding Gold Chain Details**

To add an extra layer of sophistication, I cut four short pieces and four long pieces of gold chain. The short chains would fall down the sides of the ornament, while the longer chains would arch between them, creating a sense of depth. To secure these chains, I used jump rings to attach them to the sides of the ornament.

**Embellishing with Pearls**

The final touch was adding a layer of elegance with pearl beads. I carefully selected a piece of wire with an end cap and attached it to the top of each chain, effectively hanging them from the ornament. This allowed me to distribute the pearls evenly throughout the design.

**Adding Finishing Touches**

To complete our hot air balloon ornament, I added some sparkle by looping a small piece of chain around the hanger and securing it with a jump ring. The result was nothing short of breathtaking – a glamorous hot air balloon Christmas ornament that would undoubtedly be a standout on any holiday tree.

**Tips and Variations**

As I worked on this project, I realized that it's essential to practice patience and precision when working with small details like jump rings. If you're new to jewelry making, don't be discouraged if the process takes time – with practice, you'll master the techniques. One potential variation for this ornament is painting the Christmas tree instead of using an existing one. You could also experiment with a miniature dollhouse basket as the hot air balloon's container for a more realistic look.

**The Final Result**

In conclusion, creating a glamorous hot air balloon Christmas ornament requires dedication and creativity. Despite facing challenges along the way, I'm thrilled with the final result – a beautifully crafted ornament that showcases my artistic skills. If you're inspired to take on this project, remember to be patient and have fun with it!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everyone welcome back to handmade with me karen today i'm going to be turning this christmas ornament into a hot air balloon i've seen a few different ways to do this online some are very simple and some are very complicated so i'm going to try to land right in the middle the way that i've decided to do it is basically like a jewelry project so we're using like jump rings and chain and jewelry pliers so if you do a lot of jewelry making then this project is right up your alley so before we get started let's talk about what kind of ornament you should pick i bought a set of these pesto pink ornaments and within that set just happened to be this kind of quilted design which i think looks just like a hot air balloon you can do this project with just a plain ball ornament but we are going to be drilling into the side of the ornament so if there's some sort of decoration that will help you keep all of your holes even all the way around also since we are going to be drilling um you really want to make sure that you're using a plastic ornament this is really important if you try to drill into glass it could break and you know really hurt you so please please please if you're going to do this project only use a plastic ornament so to start grab another ornament that has a gold hanger like this and go ahead and just pull that out we don't need the ornament itself just the hanger so you can put this to the side so you should have something that looks like this just pull the wire out to get two separate pieces now grab the ornament that you're using for the hot air balloon and if there's a hanger on the top of that one you can just pull that off so now we're gonna drill our first holes we're gonna drill two holes right here in what used to be at the bottom of the ornament but now it's gonna become at the top of the ornament so now it should look like this just grab the metal piece from the other ornament and we're just going to slot that right into those two holes next you're going to grab the gold cap from the other ornament and this is going to be the basket of our hot air balloon just fold back four of these tabs that are evenly spaced around the circle and then we're going to drill a hole through the top of each of those four tabs be really careful with this because it's pretty small and finicky so once you have all four of the holes drilled you can bend those tabs back up so the next thing is we'll want to cut four pieces of small gold chain to be just under an inch long you just want to make sure all four pieces are the exact same length so i counted the links in each one to make sure that they're identical then we're just going to use small gold jump rings to attach one chain to each of those holes if you're brand new to jewelry making and all of these supplies use two jewelry pliers to open the jump ring with a twist then you can just thread on the chain and the basket and then use the pliers to close it up once you have all four chains on there just to set that aside and we will get back to it in a minute so the next thing we're going to do is add jump rings to the side of the ornament i already marked the two spots where i'm going to be drilling i'm not gonna lie getting the jump ring in there is probably the trickiest part of this entire project you might want to practice on a spare ornament so that you know exactly how far apart you need to make the holes for your jump rings all right i'm not gonna lie that was really difficult even for me but now i have four jump rings on the bottom of the ornament and four jump rings going around the middle of the ornament next we're going to bring back the basket that we made earlier and we're going to use a tiny little jump ring to attach each of the four chains to those four jump rings that we put on the bottom of the ornament once you have that on there it's easier for the rest of the project to have the ornament hanging up so i'm just going to add a piece of string to the top and then hang it on a necklace holder for the rest of the project so now you'll want to cut four short pieces and four long pieces of gold chain again counting the links to make sure that they're all the exact same length mine are around an inch and a half for the short ones and about three inches for the long ones so we're just going to use jump rings to attach these to the sides of the ornament so that the long pieces arch between the jump rings that we attached before and the short pieces just fall down the side in between them and this is where it really starts looking like a fancy hot air balloon so you can embellish this as much as you want as you can see i added a second layer of chain to make mine even more over the top and there's just one more step i'm going to finish it off by attaching all of these pearl beads as you can see there's a piece of wire with a little end cap and then you can just hook it right onto at the end of a piece of chain for this project you can really decorate it however you want so you can use whatever jewelry supplies you already have and to finish it off i looped a small piece of chain around the hanger and i secured it with a jump ring to bring some sparkle up to at the top of the ornament and that's it i love how by using jump rings instead of glue it looks really clean and professional this will definitely be a standout ornament on any christmas tree so a few hours and many jump rings later and i have a super glam hot air balloon christmas ornament i'm not gonna lie when i was developing this project i almost quit and gave up multiple times but i'm so glad that i stuck with it it came out so pretty and it is perfect for my pink and white christmas tree so you can of course customize this project to really make it your own you know you could paint the christmas ornament to make it look more like a hot air balloon you could also use like a miniature dollhouse basket for the hot air balloon basket if you want it to look more realistic but i ended up going super fancy and glitzy and i think it is so cute so i'd love to know in a comment if this is the type of project you would want to take on or let us know what other types of christmas ornaments that you've been making this year so happy crafting and if you decide to try this all i can say is good luck youhi everyone welcome back to handmade with me karen today i'm going to be turning this christmas ornament into a hot air balloon i've seen a few different ways to do this online some are very simple and some are very complicated so i'm going to try to land right in the middle the way that i've decided to do it is basically like a jewelry project so we're using like jump rings and chain and jewelry pliers so if you do a lot of jewelry making then this project is right up your alley so before we get started let's talk about what kind of ornament you should pick i bought a set of these pesto pink ornaments and within that set just happened to be this kind of quilted design which i think looks just like a hot air balloon you can do this project with just a plain ball ornament but we are going to be drilling into the side of the ornament so if there's some sort of decoration that will help you keep all of your holes even all the way around also since we are going to be drilling um you really want to make sure that you're using a plastic ornament this is really important if you try to drill into glass it could break and you know really hurt you so please please please if you're going to do this project only use a plastic ornament so to start grab another ornament that has a gold hanger like this and go ahead and just pull that out we don't need the ornament itself just the hanger so you can put this to the side so you should have something that looks like this just pull the wire out to get two separate pieces now grab the ornament that you're using for the hot air balloon and if there's a hanger on the top of that one you can just pull that off so now we're gonna drill our first holes we're gonna drill two holes right here in what used to be at the bottom of the ornament but now it's gonna become at the top of the ornament so now it should look like this just grab the metal piece from the other ornament and we're just going to slot that right into those two holes next you're going to grab the gold cap from the other ornament and this is going to be the basket of our hot air balloon just fold back four of these tabs that are evenly spaced around the circle and then we're going to drill a hole through the top of each of those four tabs be really careful with this because it's pretty small and finicky so once you have all four of the holes drilled you can bend those tabs back up so the next thing is we'll want to cut four pieces of small gold chain to be just under an inch long you just want to make sure all four pieces are the exact same length so i counted the links in each one to make sure that they're identical then we're just going to use small gold jump rings to attach one chain to each of those holes if you're brand new to jewelry making and all of these supplies use two jewelry pliers to open the jump ring with a twist then you can just thread on the chain and the basket and then use the pliers to close it up once you have all four chains on there just to set that aside and we will get back to it in a minute so the next thing we're going to do is add jump rings to the side of the ornament i already marked the two spots where i'm going to be drilling i'm not gonna lie getting the jump ring in there is probably the trickiest part of this entire project you might want to practice on a spare ornament so that you know exactly how far apart you need to make the holes for your jump rings all right i'm not gonna lie that was really difficult even for me but now i have four jump rings on the bottom of the ornament and four jump rings going around the middle of the ornament next we're going to bring back the basket that we made earlier and we're going to use a tiny little jump ring to attach each of the four chains to those four jump rings that we put on the bottom of the ornament once you have that on there it's easier for the rest of the project to have the ornament hanging up so i'm just going to add a piece of string to the top and then hang it on a necklace holder for the rest of the project so now you'll want to cut four short pieces and four long pieces of gold chain again counting the links to make sure that they're all the exact same length mine are around an inch and a half for the short ones and about three inches for the long ones so we're just going to use jump rings to attach these to the sides of the ornament so that the long pieces arch between the jump rings that we attached before and the short pieces just fall down the side in between them and this is where it really starts looking like a fancy hot air balloon so you can embellish this as much as you want as you can see i added a second layer of chain to make mine even more over the top and there's just one more step i'm going to finish it off by attaching all of these pearl beads as you can see there's a piece of wire with a little end cap and then you can just hook it right onto at the end of a piece of chain for this project you can really decorate it however you want so you can use whatever jewelry supplies you already have and to finish it off i looped a small piece of chain around the hanger and i secured it with a jump ring to bring some sparkle up to at the top of the ornament and that's it i love how by using jump rings instead of glue it looks really clean and professional this will definitely be a standout ornament on any christmas tree so a few hours and many jump rings later and i have a super glam hot air balloon christmas ornament i'm not gonna lie when i was developing this project i almost quit and gave up multiple times but i'm so glad that i stuck with it it came out so pretty and it is perfect for my pink and white christmas tree so you can of course customize this project to really make it your own you know you could paint the christmas ornament to make it look more like a hot air balloon you could also use like a miniature dollhouse basket for the hot air balloon basket if you want it to look more realistic but i ended up going super fancy and glitzy and i think it is so cute so i'd love to know in a comment if this is the type of project you would want to take on or let us know what other types of christmas ornaments that you've been making this year so happy crafting and if you decide to try this all i can say is good luck youhi everyone welcome back to handmade with me karen today i'm going to be turning this christmas ornament into a hot air balloon i've seen a few different ways to do this online some are very simple and some are very complicated so i'm going to try to land right in the middle the way that i've decided to do it is basically like a jewelry project so we're using like jump rings and chain and jewelry pliers so if you do a lot of jewelry making then this project is right up your alley so before we get started let's talk about what kind of ornament you should pick i bought a set of these pesto pink ornaments and within that set just happened to be this kind of quilted design which i think looks just like a hot air balloon you can do this project with just a plain ball ornament but we are going to be drilling into the side of the ornament so if there's some sort of decoration that will help you keep all of your holes even all the way around also since we are going to be drilling um you really want to make sure that you're using a plastic ornament this is really important if you try to drill into glass it could break and you know really hurt you so please please please if you're going to do this project only use a plastic ornament so to start grab another ornament that has a gold hanger like this and go ahead and just pull that out we don't need the ornament itself just the hanger so you can put this to the side so you should have something that looks like this just pull the wire out to get two separate pieces now grab the ornament that you're using for the hot air balloon and if there's a hanger on the top of that one you can just pull that off so now we're gonna drill our first holes we're gonna drill two holes right here in what used to be at the bottom of the ornament but now it's gonna become at the top of the ornament so now it should look like this just grab the metal piece from the other ornament and we're just going to slot that right into those two holes next you're going to grab the gold cap from the other ornament and this is going to be the basket of our hot air balloon just fold back four of these tabs that are evenly spaced around the circle and then we're going to drill a hole through the top of each of those four tabs be really careful with this because it's pretty small and finicky so once you have all four of the holes drilled you can bend those tabs back up so the next thing is we'll want to cut four pieces of small gold chain to be just under an inch long you just want to make sure all four pieces are the exact same length so i counted the links in each one to make sure that they're identical then we're just going to use small gold jump rings to attach one chain to each of those holes if you're brand new to jewelry making and all of these supplies use two jewelry pliers to open the jump ring with a twist then you can just thread on the chain and the basket and then use the pliers to close it up once you have all four chains on there just to set that aside and we will get back to it in a minute so the next thing we're going to do is add jump rings to the side of the ornament i already marked the two spots where i'm going to be drilling i'm not gonna lie getting the jump ring in there is probably the trickiest part of this entire project you might want to practice on a spare ornament so that you know exactly how far apart you need to make the holes for your jump rings all right i'm not gonna lie that was really difficult even for me but now i have four jump rings on the bottom of the ornament and four jump rings going around the middle of the ornament next we're going to bring back the basket that we made earlier and we're going to use a tiny little jump ring to attach each of the four chains to those four jump rings that we put on the bottom of the ornament once you have that on there it's easier for the rest of the project to have the ornament hanging up so i'm just going to add a piece of string to the top and then hang it on a necklace holder for the rest of the project so now you'll want to cut four short pieces and four long pieces of gold chain again counting the links to make sure that they're all the exact same length mine are around an inch and a half for the short ones and about three inches for the long ones so we're just going to use jump rings to attach these to the sides of the ornament so that the long pieces arch between the jump rings that we attached before and the short pieces just fall down the side in between them and this is where it really starts looking like a fancy hot air balloon so you can embellish this as much as you want as you can see i added a second layer of chain to make mine even more over the top and there's just one more step i'm going to finish it off by attaching all of these pearl beads as you can see there's a piece of wire with a little end cap and then you can just hook it right onto at the end of a piece of chain for this project you can really decorate it however you want so you can use whatever jewelry supplies you already have and to finish it off i looped a small piece of chain around the hanger and i secured it with a jump ring to bring some sparkle up to at the top of the ornament and that's it i love how by using jump rings instead of glue it looks really clean and professional this will definitely be a standout ornament on any christmas tree so a few hours and many jump rings later and i have a super glam hot air balloon christmas ornament i'm not gonna lie when i was developing this project i almost quit and gave up multiple times but i'm so glad that i stuck with it it came out so pretty and it is perfect for my pink and white christmas tree so you can of course customize this project to really make it your own you know you could paint the christmas ornament to make it look more like a hot air balloon you could also use like a miniature dollhouse basket for the hot air balloon basket if you want it to look more realistic but i ended up going super fancy and glitzy and i think it is so cute so i'd love to know in a comment if this is the type of project you would want to take on or let us know what other types of christmas ornaments that you've been making this year so happy crafting and if you decide to try this all i can say is good luck you\n"