Paper Mache Hot Air Balloon Diary

As my cats try under coats of polyurethane, I find myself wanting to return to a project I've been wanting to make for a long time, a vintage style hot air balloon mobile.  The photo above is along the lines of what I want to do-similar styles and color palettes.

I've started with some large helium quality balloons. They blow up to a nice traditional shape and are a bit sturdier.  I covered one with the traditional strips of newspaper, and I'm covering the other with a paper mache clay recipe. Both will get additional coatings of the paper mache clay. 

For the gondola, I'm going to try using a recycled toilet paper tube as the base:

I need to wait for the paper mache coats to dry a bit more before I continue with it, so I have them in the garage with a fan drying them.

  I'd like to try making one very traditional, so I've been searching the net looking for vintage images for ideas.  For the second, I want to go in a more whimsical idea and I'm really considering making a cabbage, but that might be a bit ambitious.