How to Make Balloon Decorations

Balloon duplets are two balloons tied together at their opening that create the building blocks for most, large balloon structures such as columns and arches.

To make a balloon duplet, inflate first one balloon and leave it untied. Then inflate the second balloon to the same size as the first and tie the ends of the two balloons together.

Two pairs of balloon duplets are then twisted around fishing line, PVC pipe, or shaped frames to create the final balloon decorations.

Lots of people hire balloon clowns for children's birthday parties and these clowns shape long, twisting balloons into animals, hats, and swords. However, you can use the same concept to make great balloon centerpieces or sculptures for birthday parties, weddings and more.

As an example, I found instructions for making a pink balloon poodle that I thought was an excellent idea for a girl's birthday party.

Most of these types of balloon decorations are made from size 260 Balloons which are 2 inches around and 60 inches long.

You can get ideas for balloon decorations from many sources. Making balloon decorations for kids parties is fairly easy. They usually have a favorite character that they've already picked for their birthday cake. This gives you the basis for your balloon decorations and color scheme. Can you think up some animals, shapes, or structures that go with that character?

For non-child birthday parties, you can use arches in their favorite colors or columns that are topped with Mylar balloons of their favorite sport or team. For a man who loves golf, top a column with a Mylar golf ball. For Valentine's day, top a white column with a giant, red heart. For a woman's birthday, create a garden of balloon flowers and drape matching balloon garland around the party area.

Weddings benefit from balloon decorations because of the reduced expense. For just a few pennies, you get nearly a square foot of color for a 12 inch balloon. It takes some time and planning to get these done in advance if you do them yourself - in fact, recruit a few friends to handle these for you and come up with a time line and supply list to keep the project on track. I think white arches, columns topped with bells, hearts or doves and balloon clouds filled with balloon hearts make great decoration ideas.

Let your imagination come up with great ideas to make the party extra special.