I love giving small gifts to my employees for different occasions. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and I wanted a fun way to give them their gifts. I found small Valentine buckets in Walmart and I thought it would be fun to use them as a bucket to a hot air balloon. The hot air balloon can be used as a decoration and the bucket can hold their gifts.

The main supplies I will be using are:

1. Small craft dowels

2. Valentine bucket from Walmart

3. Paper lantern

4. Hot glue

5. White paint

6. Ribbons

I got the small dowels in Walmart. You can also use wooden kabob sticks or decorative paper straws

I painted the dowels white with a basic white craft paint.

I am using 3 dowels for the hot air balloon. You can use 3 or 4 dowels. I glued the dowels to the inside of the bucket.

I am making these for all of my employees. I’m trying to keep the cost down which is why I went with the 98 cent bucket from Walmart. You can use any type of container or basket for this hot air balloon.

I am adding a few ribbons to the top of the dowel.

The ribbon with the flowers is from Hobby Lobby. I like to cut the flowers apart and use them separately.

I glued the ribbons to back of the flower and then placed the flower onto the top part of the dowel.

I did this to all three dowels.

I then placed the gifts into the bucket.

You can create these hot air balloons for any occasion. I love to use a lot of neutral colors when crafting so I thought it would be fun to create one that can be used for any occasion.

I found this cute plastic pot at the Dollar Tree.

These hot air balloons are so fun and easy to make. I hope you will all get creative and give this a try.