Happy Belated Birthday Liane!

Yup!  It's the big 4-0 for me and my friends this year, so I thought I should make them something special for their big day.  My friend Liane and I go waaaaayyy back.. 7th grade to be precise.  Through everything, we have maintained our friendship and manage to keep in touch despite our hectic lives.  

I'm really late with her gift this year... I guess going to Japan got the best of me, and before I knew it... I was leaving, so I had to delay delivery of her gift until I could visit her in February.  This gave me some time to put the final touches on her gift.

I was desperately in search of something new and stumbled on this you tube video...  Which led me to this one...  Thank you to MSLiberty25 and EverBloomingCrafts for posting your videos on this cool project! It was just the kind of project I was looking for for a special birthday!

Here's my version of the hot air balloon...

Do you see Mariko!?  She's ready to give my friend her present...  I didn't have the chipboard balloon that was mentioned in the videos, so I ended up searching for a template and downloaded it and hand cut them out myself.  Then I distressed all edges of the balloon.  Here's a closer look.  Decorated around the balloon using my SU pennant punch and some IAR daisies.

On the other side of the balloon, you will see Miyoko!  Miyoko is actually named after my friend, so I included the rubber stamp of her.

Here's a close up of Mariko...

And a better look at Miyoko!

I think the most difficult part was getting all the chains the same length.  Yes, I was too lazy to count each link, so I just "eyeballed" it.  Had to make several adjustments, but it came out OK.  Hope she liked it!  Happy Belated B-day!  Hope you had a great one!