Creating Confetti Filled Balloons
Gather your materials. Most of the supplies for confetti balloons can be found at your local craft store, general retailers, most grocery stores, and sometimes even pharmacies. You'll need: Balloons Confetti Funnel or tube (optional; recommended) Ribbon (optional) Scissors (optional) Tissue paper (optional) You can use clear balloons for filling confetti.
Ready your work area. Confetti can easily spread around and make a mess. Lay out a cover over your work area, like newspaper, a drop cloth, or butcher paper, to catch any errant confetti. Once you've finished making your balloons, roll up your cover so the confetti is trapped inside it, then dump the confetti in a container for later or in the trash.
Make your own confetti, if desired. Confetti is relatively inexpensive, but you can still save some money and have fun doing it by turning confetti making into a craft.Use suitable paper, like colored construction paper, then: Use scissors to cut long, narrow strips in the paper. Your strips should be roughly a ¼" (.64 cm) thick. From one end of the strip, begin cutting ¼" (.64 cm) squares free from the strip. Do this until you have enough confetti.
Create personalized confetti, if desired. For personalized confetti, you may want to cut tissue paper into small (no larger than a quarter) thematically appropriate shapes. This can be used in place of store-bought confetti, or mixed in with it. For example: Cut miniature hearts in red-colored tissue paper to create Valentine's Day-themed confetti. Use green tissue paper to cut out shamrock shapes for St. Patrick's Day celebrations. Red and green tissue paper cut into small circles work well for Christmastime holiday events. Cut small scale flowers in bright, vibrant colors to create a springtime vibe in your balloons.
Insert confetti into your balloon with a funnel. The easiest way to do this is with a funnel or a medium thickness tube. Put your funnel or tube in the mouth of the balloon, and pour confetti through the funnel and into the balloon. Larger tissue paper designs can be rolled up and pushed through the funnel/tube. Do this for as many balloons as you desire.
Open the mouth of the balloon by hand, alternatively. If you don't have a funnel or tube handy, you can simply stretch the mouth of the balloon open to fit your confetti. However, this may be easiest to do with an extra set of hands.
Clear clogs in the funnel or the neck of the balloon. In some cases, your confetti may clog your funnel, tube, or even the neck of the balloon. If this happens, use a narrow item, like a chopstick or an unsharpened pencil, to push the confetti through.
Inflate and string your balloon. Now that confetti is inside the balloons, you can fill them with helium or air. When the balloon is full, tie off the end in a simple knot. With another simple knot, attach a ribbon or string to the tied-off end of the balloon. Helium is necessary if you want your balloons to float. Helium tanks can be found at party stores and many general retailers, like Target and Walmart.
Making Confetti Balloon Variations
Insert LEDs into your confetti balloons. Small, lightweight, battery-powered LED lights are available at most craft stores and general retailers. Insert these into the balloons. Turn them on right before inflating the balloon to prolong the battery life of the LEDs. Avoid using incandescent or heat-generating lights for this variation. The heat these lights generate can cause balloons to pop or the confetti to catch fire.
Design faces on confetti balloons. This can be an especially fun activity with young children. Use markers to draw a mouth and eyes on your inflated, confetti-filled balloons. You can even attach ribbon or string to the top of the balloon with tape to create hair for your balloon buddy. In some cases, glue can have a negative reaction with balloons, causing them to weaken or pop. For this reason, tape is recommended for attaching accents, like string for hair, to balloon buddies.
Use flat sequins to coat the inside of balloons. Rounded sequins can create a nice effect in your balloons, but because of their shape, they don't easily stick to its inside. Insert flat sequins as you would normally and shake the balloon to evenly coat its inside with sequins. Using shiny, silver sequins in this fashion can give your balloons the appearance of a disco ball, which is perfect for retro-themed parties.
Using Your Confetti Balloons
Decorate for parties with your balloons. Balloons are a common party decoration. However, your confetti-filled balloons will be all the more alluring because of the interesting designs and colorful decorative bits inside. To display the balloons, you might: Hang balloons from various fixtures and furniture, like sills, floor lamps, chairs, and so on. Allow helium balloons to float up to picturesque parts of the ceiling. For example, you might float clusters of balloons into the corners of your party room. Tie helium-filled balloon strings to some kind of weight, like a doorstop, a rock, and so on. Place the balloons around your party area as decorations.
Dress up tables with balloons. If you're decorating for a more formal party, you may have centerpieces on tables. These are often heavy enough to attach some balloons to, no problem. You can also tape balloons along the edges of tables or to the table corners to add a dash of style. Oftentimes, helium-filled balloons can be tied to the underside of the table and, if the string is long enough, floated out into the open so that balloons aerially border the table.
Play games with the balloons. Keep away is a popular game played with balloons. A fun version of this game involves players taking turns hitting a balloon up into the air, with each player trying to keep the balloon from hitting the ground. These games work best when played with air-filled balloons. The confetti inside the balloons should jostle around every time the balloon is touched by a player. This can make the game more challenging and visually appealing. You may also be able to use helium balloons that have started to lose their buoyancy to play these games.
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