For the Summer in Europe swap we were challenged to craft something that represented summer in our country.
There are many stereotypical things I could have done but struggled to work out how to make them. E.g. BBQ in the rain.
One night my brain popped up an idea - the Ballon Fiesta. This happens here in Bristol most years and is very popular. That should be fairly easy to create…
Oh, how wrong I was 
Attempt no. 1 - I thought I could use some flower wires turned into a balloon shape and cover them with fabric. This was an absolute failure, the wires were too short. It made everything too fiddly and time consuming and I hated how it was turning out. It barely kept it’s balloon shape. It’s now discarded in a corner until I unpick it or bin it!
Attempt no. 2 - crochet the balloons. I found a pattern but as I was crocheting it felt like the first stitch (as written) in each round was wrong. I finished a couple and put them down for the night, the next day I looked at them and they were so lacy that to hold the shape would need stuffing or another method
I looked at the lacy pattern and decided that the first stitch definitely made it look wrong, so they were frogged.
By this time I was beginning to panic as we were running out of time.
Attempt no. 3 - paper mache. Kids do it all the time so it can’t be that hard…
Again, wrong! The actual paper mache wasn’t too bad, but it was cold and wet here so things took longer to dry. I wanted a fair few layers so that it would keep it’s shape. The paper mache is also from a Bristol magazine, so keeping it local!
The result:
The inspiration:
I chose the cat ballon because cats were include in the swap q’s. It’s not easy to attach cat features to a non smooth surface. And painting paper mache black - also challenging.
I hadn’t thought about how to make and attach the basket or whether it could stand up. Again, tried to use the wires to attach the basket, too flimsy. So I stitched with string and added a hanging string. Oh and the balloon I crafted round didn’t want to pop!
Note to self - when completing a new craft, plan it a lot better
