Monday...er, Tuesday Funday

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! 


OK.  I also need to say sorry.  So, sorry.  I was a bigfatlazy dupa and was also super busy this weekend with life.  I missed posting yesterday, so I'm going to give you a Craft-tacular special that EVERYONE can create.  PROMISE. You are not going to be able to hold your excitment in much longer....are you ready?!?  Ok.

                                              The Birthday Balloon Wreath

This idea originally came from here  but of course, I had to take it to the next level.  I made this for my mom's birthday that we celebrated this weekend.

Materials:

Straw wreath (3.99 - I used a 40% coupon)

small sewing pins (I bought mine in the sewing section of ACMoore)

Wire

Hot glue gun

Ribbon (for the bow)

Approx. 100 balloons

I bought all but the wreath and pins at the dollar store.  This project cost under 10 dollars.

Leave the plastic wrapper on the wreath.  Secure a looped piece of wire to the back with hot glue so that the wreath can hang.  I did this the day before when I finished up another project.  I let it dry for a while then tested the strength overnight when I hung it on the easel. 

Once the wreath is hang-able, start with the balloons.  Just start placing them around the top, pinning in place and overlapping the slightly.  I let the balloons hang, and tried to "crowd" them together so you wouldn't see the straw.  I worked some around the "top" and "inside" of the wreath as well.  I placed balloons in any direction - to give more of a random feel and pattern to them so they looked more organic/natural.  Just keep pinning, pinning, pinning...

After two bags - my OCD gets the better of me and I cannot allow balloons of the same color to be too close to each other.  The second bag I used was full of blue - hence why there are blue balloons scattered all around the wreath now. 

After three bags - approx 75 balloons. 

After 4 bags.  The bags I bought at the dollar store contained balloons that were shaped.  Originally I was not using them.  Then I realized I was silly and used them to fill in the gaps I had left.

I made a big ol' bow out of  Happy Birthday ribbon from the dollar store and placed it on top with some more pins.

I secured the tendrils with pins so that they would stay in place.

Ta-da! Birthday Balloon Wreath!

*At my mom's birthday on Sunday, my Aunt K made the suggestion that the wreath was missing something.  I had tried several signs/banners but all were too big or took away from the wreath too much.  So I chose to abstain from adding anything else.  Her suggestion was to add a party hat and noise maker to give it some sparkle.