Decorating with Balloons

This was a great find! After spending hours one day browsing the web looking for ideas for my son's upcoming birthday party, I came across a balloon decorating instructions ebook written by a balloon expert decorator. If you're looking for immediate ideas you can grab right now, this is just the ticket.

For less than $13, you get to immediately download a 42 page book of step by step directions on how to build arches, balloon clusters, wreaths, and swags. It covers material lists, instructions, photos and tips for making balloon decorations quickly. You'll also learn which type of balloons are best and how to get your decorations to last through your event. Now, anytime I need ideas for a party, there's the book - right on my computer!

Covering the ceiling with balloons works really well if you're decorating indoors. It's cheaper to buy either a one-time use helium tank from Target or Walmart and buy your own balloons than it is to have a party store make up enough balloons to cover your ceiling.

Determine the square footage of your ceiling by measuring the length and width of the floor underneath and multiplying those two numbers together. For example, if your room is 12 feet long and 12 feet wide, then you need to cover (12x12) 144 square feet of ceiling space. Each standard 10 or 11 inch balloon blown to full size usually covers just under a square foot of space. To cover the ceiling completely, you'd need at least one balloon for each square foot of ceiling. If you want to do half coverage, you'd need about 70 balloons, and one-quarter coverage would be approximately 36 balloons.

Photo used under Creative Commons from incurable hippie.

You can create a balloon arch in any size you need. There are two methods for making balloon arches - either attach air-filled balloons to some sort of frame or use helium balloons and wrap them around string, yarn, or ribbon. It was a few years before I'd learned the method of twisting balloon "clusters" around a balloon arch support. The twisting method is much easier to use and you can move much more quickly.

Watch the next YouTube videos for instructions on how to twist balloons into balloon "clusters" and how to make an arch.

If you need further information, refer to these balloon arch instructions for written directions.

Photo used under Creative Commons from simax105.

To tie a ribbon to a balloon, run the ribbon along your index finger before you tie the balloon off. Wrap the end of the balloon around the ribbon and your index finger and pull the ribbon through with the end of the balloon as you tie. This squeezes the ribbon inside the knot you made in the balloon and saves a whole lot of time.

If a helium balloon escapes and is floating on the ceiling and you happen to have another helium balloon available with a ribbon tied to it, make a little roll of scotch tape (sticky side out) and place that on top of the balloon you have. Using the ribbon, float the one balloon with tape on the top of it up to the escaped balloon. The tape will grab the loose balloon and voila!

If you're making balloon "clusters", blow up one balloon and hold onto it without tying it off. Blow up a second balloon. Now, overlap the ends of the two balloons and tie them off together in a knot. You needed them attached anyway for the cluster and you'll cut down on the number of times you have to tie off balloons.

More Balloon Decoration Ideas