Nothing says “Let’s celebrate” like a bunch of balloons! Especially a fancy balloon arch you can make yourself to be used as a photo backdrop or a centerpiece to your party. Birthday parties, bridal parties, baby showers, whatever you’re celebrating… a balloon arch is always a good idea!
This balloon arch was a used as both a welcome sign and a backdrop for photos (hello Instagram!) for my niece’s pink boho party to celebrate her college graduation! A good mix of textures, colors and real flowers is what makes this look full and fancy.
You’ll probably want to gather your friends and family to help with this one though because it does take quite some time to blow up enough balloons for this arch. But it depends on how full (or fancy) you want your balloon arch to be. We blew up a ton of balloons, we went through a few bags of balloons, and also made paper pom poms.
What you’ll need to make the balloon arch:
- Double stuffed balloons (more on this below), metallic balloons, animal print balloons, recommend various colors (blush, peach, brown, white and ivory)
- Gold butterflies
- Paper pom poms various sizes
- Adhesive hooks
- Tying balloons
- Double side tape
- Balloon pump
- Baby’s breath
- 6-7′ Plywood Arch (cut plywood and paint)
What are double stuffed balloons – and why do you need them?
Double stuffing balloons or, balloon layering, is combining 2 different colors balloons, one inside another, to create a custom or unique color. The outer balloon is the dominant shade, while the other inside it really gives it an extra layer to play with colors for your arrangement. It’s kind of like mixing paint colors to get different color tones. You can double stuff the balloons yourself, but it can be tricky and time consuming, or you can buy them. Double stuffed balloons are also harder to blow up without a pump, so would recommend getting one and save your lungs the effort!
How to make the balloon arch
The first thing you want to do is add the adhesive hooks to your arch. Let’s do the EASIEST part first, I always say! Then blow up all of the balloons you need as well as making the paper pom poms. Fill up your whole room with it! The balloon pump is going to be your best friend and lifesaver here! I like making them in different sizes so you can have some dimension.
Then you’ll want to make balloon clusters (each cluster is made of 4 balloons) by taking 2 balloons and tying the ends together to make a pair. Then make another pair and take both pairs of balloons and cross them by the ends you tied. Twist them to hold and now you have a cluster! You can make them with various colors or like colors if you want to do a gradient.
Using the tying balloon, tie the ends into a loop and hook it around a balloon cluster. This makes it easy to then attach it onto the hooks on the arch. Keep adding the balloon clusters until the arch is full. Then using the double sided tape, you can add on your filler items (gold butterflies, paper pom poms, baby’s breath, single balloons. etc.)
I’m not going to lie, it took the afternoon to complete with 4 people. The longest part of it was blowing up the balloons and making the paper poms. After that, assembling it went by quickly, so definitely plan ahead with enough time to prepare for your party. This also lasts a while too, we took it down after a week (it was just too pretty!) and the balloons didn’t deflate or pop!
Jungle House 