Nothing says party like balloons, and we love to have parties to celebrate any and all occasions. So it only seemed natural that we would do some experimenting to find easy ways to decorate our balloons to make them even more festive and fun. We love to repurpose them, light them up, put them on stemware, and now we love to decorate them in 7 different ways!
Supplies:
– 1 helium tank
– balloons
– gold and blue metallic pipe cleaners
– gold acrylic paint
– circle sponge brush
– white paint pen (Sharpie or Deco Color)
– stones or marbles or other heavy material to weight down balloons
– glitter card stock (any brightly colored paper will work)
– tassels
– rhinestone stickers
– wired gold tinsel ribbon
– 3 small vases
– 1 Hawaiian lei
– baker’s twine
– pink and black handlebar moustaches
Tools:
– tape
– scissors
– hot glue gun
You can blow up the balloons yourself buy buying a helium tank, or you can take the short cut of buying them pre-filled and delivered by a party store. Be sure to not blow the balloons up too early before the party or they will start to deflate – they seemed to float for about 6 hours.
1. Hot Air Balloon Centerpiece: This piece was definitely inspired by UP!
Blow up a balloon as big as it will go without popping. We actually recommend blowing up all your balloons for this project as big as possible so they can hold the weight of the decorations. Then use the baker’s twine as the string for all your balloons on this project. Next make your tassels by folding a long length of twine, adding a piece to hang it from, tie another piece around the top, and snip off the ends. Make two of these and tie them from bottom of your balloon.
Next up, tie your balloon to a weight (we used a few stones) and place it in a small to medium sized vase. Then cut two pieces of baker’s twine that is long enough to wrap around the balloon and vase. Add a dot of glue in the middle to hold the two pieces together. Place the two pieces on top of the balloon, keeping the glue dot in the center of the balloon. Place the hanging four strands inside the base and secure them with hot glue. Fill with flowers and voila – a Hot Air Balloon Centerpiece!
Want to know how to make that cute wood vase out of a plain glass vase? Check out our how-to!
2. Fancy Pants Mustache Balloons: These hipster balloons would look right at home in the Mission.
Blow up black and pink balloons and then tie a bow out of the wired tinsel ribbon at the base of the balloons. Shape them into bow ties if you want your mustache men to be extra fancy! Then peel the back of the mustaches off and stick them on the center of the balloons. Don’t they look classy?
3. Hanging Embellished Balloons: There are so many fun things you can hang from your balloons, and two of our favorites is a Hawaiian lei that has been cut to hang straight, and tassels!
You can find leis at any party store and tassels from fabric and ribbon stores such as JoAnn’s.
4. Party King and Queen Balloons: Take existing party hats and crowns or make your own.
Make little party hats for your balloons by cutting a wide triangle out of glitter card stock, gluing it in a cone, and gluing wired gold tinsel ribbon around the base and on the top. This was a little too heavy for our balloons to stay afloat, so we tied them to stones and placed them inside small vases to become a base to hold the balloon up.
To make your party queen, use 2 gold pipe cleaners (or more of the wired gold tinsel ribbon would work too) to make a halo. Just twist the ends together to attach them. Then take 2 more pipe cleaners and bend each of them into two triangles. Twist their ends to the halo as well and you’re ready to crown your favorite balloon.
5. Chalkboard Balloons: We have a serious weakness for chalkboard paint and anything that looks like it.
Just blow up black and green balloons and use a white paint pen to write your party message on and you’re done! Cute!
6. Festive 4th of July Balloons: You don’t have to wait for the 4th to add rhinestones to your balloons, but we love this idea for a midsummer party.
Blow up red balloons and embellish with blue rhinestone stickers. Then twirl metallic blue pipe cleaners around your fingers to make them curl, and twist onto the base of the balloons.
7. Gold Polka Dots: Remember our gold polka dot party napkins? Make them some balloon buddies!
Blow up any color balloon that suits your fancy and use the circle sponge brush to stamp gold circles on. We recommend pressing and lightly twisting the sponge brush on each circle to get full coverage. You can also got back and do a second coat if you want your dots to be super perfect.
We couldn’t decide which of these ways we liked best, so we made all of them!
Hip, Hip, Hooray!
We love the idea of making those party hats and crowns for your balloons and your guests to wear!
Which of these ideas would you try? Have you discovered any other ways to decorate balloons? Talk to us in the comments below!
