Lessons Learnt Journal » decorations

Parties: Balloon Wall

Pauline — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 14:00:07 +0000

Balloons are a staple decoration for parties but they have always baffled me. Yes, I get that they’re fun to play with – especially when you’re under five years of age. But how does one decorate well with them? We’ve experimented with helium balloons. Having them float to the ceiling with pretty ribbons hanging down is pretty; but I think it’s such a pity to only see the tails of the balloons. Isn’t the prettiest part of the balloon the top bit? Where you can see the most colour and that gorgeous round pot-belly shape? I think I’ve finally found something that works for parties: the balloon wall. Something that’s cheap, easy and displays a whole wall of pot-belly shaped balloons.

Materials
Balloons of various shapes, colours and patterns
Masking Tape
A wall

Notes from the Trenches

Tie a piece of string/ribbon to the end of the balloon and stick the string/ribbon to the wall using masking tape. This is harder than it sounds, especially when you have to place the balloons close to each other.

I purchased a hand balloon pump thinking it would make light work of inflating all the latex balloons we had ordered. I am glad we did have the pump, as I can’t imagine blowing up all these balloons; but even with the pump, it took us about 2 hours to finish our balloon wall. So, plan for ample time to inflate the balloons and stick them onto the wall.

It’s also worth purchasing good quality masking tape. We used a pretty ordinary one and the balloons kept falling off the wall. Most frustrating to us who set up the wall, but the kids enjoyed it. They looted whatever fell off the wall, (which made packing up easier for us).

The kids gasped when they first saw the balloon wall. They knew something special was happening. It’s a fun visual way to mark the celebration of a special occassion. It’s also a beautiful backdrop for those special celebration photos. We’ll be creating more balloon walls for future celebrations; and hopefully next time we start constructing the wall at 8pm rather than 1am.

May 2012

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DIY Butterfly & Roses Chandelier

Pauline — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:00:11 +0000

Let’s kick off 2012 with something pretty. Now that the female presence in our family has been boosted with the addition of little K, I have more reason to dabble in pretty things. There are so many beautiful mobiles / chandeliers out there but when I saw this one, I was smitten to the core. I give full credit to these Heart Land Paper and I won’t replicate their instructions on how to make one, but I will add to their instructions, my “notes from the trenches”.

Here are the materials I used.
I have marked items with a * that differ from the original instructions).

Butterfly punch
Paper for butterfly cutouts
Small paper roses*
Large bamboo embroidery hoop
25 meters of lace*
Fishing wire
Floral wire for cross hairs of chandelier*
Hot glue gun (not pictured)*
Scissors

Some explanations for variations in materials used:

Lace instead of ribbon: I compared the price of lace and ribbon and it was much cheaper for me to use lace. I didn’t have much time to search through the shop so there may be ribbons out there that are cheaper than lace, but in my brief shopping trip, lace was the winner.

I chose to use some premium coloured papers (adorned with glitter or double-sided) instead of white cardstock and clear vellum. I wanted to add some pink and brown colours to the room.

During my brief shopping trip, I came across these adorable paper roses and just had to add them to the chandelier.

Instead of glue dots, I found it much quicker and sturdier to use my beloved glue gun to glue the bits and pieces together.

I wanted to use tulle for hanging the chandelier to the ceiling, but the shop assistants were terribly grumpy and I had a baby strapped to me, hence could not manage to carry a large roll of tulle to the counter by myself. Lace would do for now.

I alternated between butterflies and roses on each fishing wire.

The roses added a unique charm to the piece and I’m glad I added them.

It took several hours to complete, but it’s such a stunning visual hand-made piece to have in a room. It was well worth the effort.

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