How to make a Balloon Arch

 

If you have ever done any fundraising, or decorating for a party at your childs school,  been to a school dance, done anything that has anything to do with kids you know that balloons are involved.

 

If you have ever been in charge of decorating for these functions you know just how expensive it is to pay someone to make a balloon arch for your celebration.

 

BIG BUCKS!

Really big bucks.

So many that I could not justify paying someone to do it for our last fundraiser.

I knew I could make one cheaper.

 

These directions are NOT FOR HELIUM BALLOONS. You could use helium but that is what makes it so expensive.

Heliums costs bucks!

 

I will try and walk you through this as clearly as I can.

I will also tell you where I messed up.

 

First you will need to go to the hardware store and buy the following

 

Twp     1/2 inch by 12 feet PVC piping.

One      coupling to join the two PVC pipes.

Two      T-brackets for the base

One      6 foot board 1x6 I believe...have them cut it in half, they will do this for free.

Four      bags of sandbox sand

two screws to attach the T-brackets to the boards

Duck Tape

 

 

You will also need approximately 100 balloons, 12inch helium balloons.

A Drill

An Air pump to blow up the balloons. I used the air pump that we use to blow up our beach toys

A piece of cardboard for a guide

Clamps to clamp the cardboard guide to a table.

 

The first thing you need to do is to start blowing up your balloons. You DO NOT WANT TO BLOW THEM UP TO THE FULL 12 INCHES.

 If you do, they will pop. I promise.

So that you will get uniform balloons cut out a shape like the below photos.

This guide is very helpful.

Don't poo poo it.



Blow your balloons up two at a time and then knot them together so that you create sets of two.
Best if you put the same colors together.

Once you have a bunch of double balloons created tie TWO sets of TWO together by twisting them around each other. This creates QUADS. When you twist them together they are "locked" together and do not come undone.

The picture above shows Kristen twisting two sets together creating a quad.

Once you have a bunch of quads created you then attach them to the PVC pipe.

To assemble the PVC piping:
Take the two 12foot sections and join them together using a coupling showed below.
I then took white duck tape and wrapped it around joints so it would not come apart. I did not glue it because I wanted to be able to take it apart and store it for future use.

 

I  then took the boards and used them for my base.

I used the drill to screw the screws through the PVC  T pipe to secure it to the board. Then put the 12 foot pipe into the T fitting and duck taped that together.

 

Ok.
So now you have your quads made
Your frame is set and it is time to twist the balloons onto the PVC pipe.
Twist the balloons around the pipe "locking" them onto the pipe twisting them around each other.
 By doing this you will not need to use any string to tie them onto the pipe.
Attach the next quad snugly next to the first quad.

The arch will need to be "tethered" to make is sturdier. We used it outside and it was rather windy and I wished I had used something sturdier that the fishing line that I used, but it worked.
Just know that wind can be pretty brutal.
I also anchored it by using four sand bags on top of the board, you can see them in the bottom photo.

My base could have been sturdier and I should have paid more attention to my placement of the color of balloons but hey, it worked.
The best part of this whole thing was the cost.
I spent $9.50 on the piping and supplies and the balloons were $11.00 for 100 balloons.

Because I had the pump and did not have to blow each one up by my own breath we made this is less than an hour and a half.

Yes, it could be fine tuned and be made better but it gives you an idea of just how easy it is to make.

If yo have any questions please ask and I will try and help you out.
Thanks for visiting.
Krista

Fired Up!

Sam and I went to Fired Up! in Asheville this past weekend. He had been bugging me to go for a few weeks and finally we were able to get there. We had gone last month and I thought I had done a blog but apparently I never got it done.

 

 

The last time were were there we painted pottery but this time we wanted to work with glass. You start with a plain piece of glass, I chose a clear square piece. You then glue different colors and shapes to the top of the large square. There are many colors and shapes to select or you can use the glass cutter to make you own.

After you have your design laid out and glued they stick it in the kiln and melt the glass and it all fuses together...and voila! Sun catcher!

The only hard part was coming up with a design, we must have started over a dozen times. But finally, three hours later we were finally done.

We really had a great time. It was nice just the two of us hanging out. Sam is a funny kid, cracks me up. And he is growing up fast. I think he a grown a foot in the last month, voice is changing and shaving.

He is a good kid. I am lucky, I just wish I could keep him young forever.

What to do with all those school papers...

I don't know about you but I seem to collect an awful lot of papers from the kids school work. I have gotten a little pickier about the ones I keep but Good Golly!

What I have started to do is this...

I have a 3 drawer sterilite bin that I have gotten form Wally World (lord I hate that place) and because I have 3 kids, each one gets their own drawer.

Creative I know, but hang in here with me.

It is in the basement out of the way but I routinely add their stories and homework to it. I then try and separate them into school years and clamp them with the big monster clips, I don't know what they are called so monster clips is what I am calling them.

I will also save artwork.

These are a stack of homemade cards that the kids have given me through the years.

Sophia is big into writing so I have a ton of her stories that she has written and I just could not get rid of them.

 I put them in a nice neat stack and used card stock and stickers to make a front and back.

Carters self portrait for the top of  his stack.

I now have these stacks of homework and stories the kids have done and I bring them to Staples.

I have them laminate the top paper and the back paper and have it spiral bound. Not too expensive either at about $4.00 dollars a book. Pretty cool huh?

 For this one I took one of Sophia's watercolor art project and cut it in half and used that for the front and back of the book.

This is from Sam when he was in Kindergarten. Inside is a collection of writings and art work that he did the whole year.

These are all the cards that the kids have made through the years.

I love that they are all in one place, neat and tidy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to Homestories A to Z

Rustic Coat Rack

This is the latest project to be completed, not necessarily the only project that is going on, but a completed one.

Our new home does not really have a mud room by the back door. It does have a closet that is completely consumed by my husbands motorcycle paraphernalia and not really convenient or easy  for the kids to use.

This project is really easy and pretty inexpensive.

I purchased a precut board from Lowe's. Four feet of clear pine wood.  I don't like trying to cover up knots in wood so it is worth it to pay a little extra for clear wood.  Cost of board $7.49

 I did not need to sand or prime the board because the paint that I am using has primer in it. I did not use the chalkboard paint that you see above. It is just used for propping the board up to paint it.

I only needed one coat of paint.

I purchased these hooks on Ebay. The price of 5 hooks and shipping came to around $15.00, much cheaper than buying them at a local hardware store. I think they were about $1.75 each.

 This is the paint that I used. I already had it left over from the potato bin re purposing project.

 After the board dried I used pretty coarse sand paper to rough it up a little to expose the raw wood underneath.

I then used min wax cherry stain and a rag and rubbed the entire board with it.

Let it dry for a day. The stain tends to take longer than the paint. The stain really makes it look richer and older.

 Then because I rarely measure anything I laid the hooks out and "eye balled" it.

There is one thing I am smart about is to know when to call in the professionals.

 I knew it would be in my best interest to involve Left Brain Bob and the Mini Bob (Sam).

They measured. Marked. measured. Marked.

 And I am sure these hooks are not off by a millimeter.

 See what I mean. TWO measuring devices.

I would have used my thumb and one eye squinted to get the right spot.

This is the spot without the coat rack.

 Not much room

 I would have put it right....there.

But I have once again got it figured out that my LeftBrainEngineeringHusband  would have it in the studs and level.

 This baby ain't going no where.

And NO Carter that does not mean you can hang on it. Yes, he asked if he could. Boys.

 So glad that my big strong husband was able to take care of this for me.

 (spoken with a strong southern accent)

Looks pretty good if I do say so myself!

Thanks for stopping by...hope to see you again soon.