[Inkscape-user] Losing colours when copying

I am using some images from openclipart.

I am trying to copy two different balloons (clipart/recreation/party/balloon-red-aj.svg and balloon-blue-aj.svg) into a single new image.

I first copy -red and paste into the new image and all is good. When I copy -blue and paste into the new image, it is pasted also as red (not blue). Nothing I seem to do will copy the image over as blue.

If I create a second new image and paste just the blue, it copies over as blue. If I then copy red and paste, it pastes as blue.

Any suggestions as to how I can get the copy to happen?

Thanks, mG.