Happy Birthday to Me! (Today, March 1st, is my 28th birthday.)
Last year I had wanted to make this balloon wreath and post it as my birthday post. And then I found out how expensive balloons are! The whole project got a bit sidetracked, but I finally got it finished so it maybe be a year late, but I am finally able to post this as a special birthday themed project.
I first spotted this balloon wreath idea here on How Does She? and it was one of the first things to get pinned to my pinterest board! The supplies have been sitting in my apartment for over a year, waiting to be made and I finally got down to it last week. I am also trying to get better about taking photos as I work, and making more formal tutorials so I figured this was a great simple project to start with!
Materials:
Wreath: I used a styrofoam wreath because its cheap, the original tutorial used a straw wreath, I think they’d both work just fine. Balloons, LOTS: Sorry, I have NO idea how many I used, a friend bought them for me and they arrived in one big bag all jumbled. Floral Pins: The tutorial calls them Greening Pins, you find them in craft stores in the fake flower section, Michaels has them, that’s where I got mine. I used roughly 200, though one box was open so I may have lost some over the year.
Step 1: Gather 1-4 balloons. I used bunches of 4 to save pins, the original tutorial calls for each balloon to be pinned individually, its up to you.
Step 2: The pin is U shaped, insert the balloon cluster into the U of the pin, so the pin is at the ‘stem’ of the balloons where they are skinny.
Step 3: Insert the pin into your wreath, pinning the balloons securely against the wreath. Don’t worry if you can see the pin clearly, once you add another few bunches they balloons will cover all the pins.
Step 4: Keep adding balloons until you’ve covered your whole wreath. I took photos as I went, so you can see the balloons growing. Also I found that they were so nice and thick, that I didn’t need to really cover much of the sides of the wreath, but that’s also because the wreath I was using was small. It was a 12″ styrofoam wreath, which resulted in a 16″ balloon wreath.
Step 5: Add a hook of some sort, I tied a piece of string around it and pinned it securely in place with leftover floral pins. I found the wreath was pretty heavy (another reason to use styrofoam as the original form, keep it as light as possible) so make sure your hook is really securely fastened to the wreath.
Step 6: Hang, and enjoy! I plan on displaying mine at my birthday party this weekend!
Ok, so as tutorials go this wasn’t exactly rocket science, but still its good to practice writing out steps, and it was fun to take photos as I went. Plus I discovered that even though I was doing this project at night in my dimly lit apt, the photos aren’t terrible, especially after a bit of photoshop. So no more sunlight excuses for me!
I just love themed projects, don’t you? Does anyone have another fun birthday project that they’ve done or really want to do? I’ll need ideas for next year!!
Ciao, Allison
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I’ve been thinking about making an official website for my lighting for a while, and finally I did it! I was able to get the domain name http://www.Zipper8Lighting.com and I’ve been working on adding more and more info and photos and features as fast as I can. It also includes some new portfolio photos I’ve been working on, like the photo here which I took a few weeks ago. It features my large coffee filter pendant (or now a slightly smaller size actually) and is set up to evoke thoughts of summer weddings and garden parties.
