“Whatever you do, don’t pop any balloons!” Read the identical texts that my sister and her husband received from me and my SO, “Um, ok, was planning on practicing my knife juggling?” They were arriving in the wee hours of the morning and crashing on our living room sofa, a sofa that at the moment was surrounded by a sea of balloons in every color of the rainbow. About 250 balloons to be exact, loosely sorted by color. As anyone in possession of a toddler can attest, you do not want to wake them in the middle of the night, especially not when they have been promised a party upon rising (I don’t advise using this to coax your kids into bed unless you like getting up really early). 

Amazingly, by the time they arrived, all 250 balloons had been strung together into a rather impressive looking arch, and while I did not craft the entire thing myself, I can attest that with a little help and the right tools it went quickly and was fairly idiot proof.

Prior to purchasing all of the supplies, I poured over every tutorial I could find as any self-respecting potential future contestant of “Nailed It!” would. I found plenty of beautiful examples, but they always lost me when things started to get overly complicated. Use a “low heat” glue gun and be careful not to pop them (um, nope, ironically I hate popping balloons). Construct a chicken wire frame... probably not the best option for this urban apartment dweller.  Finally, I cobbled together a few to get the look I wanted with minimal effort. I ordered three multipacks of balloons in assorted colors, one 12 inches, one 10 inches and a pack of water balloons, an electric balloon pump, a balloon tie-er, glue dots and finally an amazing contraption called the balloon deco strip that made putting it all together a cinch. Now that I’ve got my kit I’m looking for every opportunity to make another arch, potluck? I’ll bring a balloon arch! Housewarming? How do you feel about balloon arches? Baby shower... you get the idea. My favorite type of DIY is the combination of high impact and low effort, even better when you save a bundle in the process. This project checked all of the boxes, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

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Supplies: 

Balloon Deco Strip Clear, $10.60 |  Electric Balloon Pump, $20.99 |  EZ Tie - Balloon Tying Tool, $8.99 | Glue Dots, $5.70 | Command Wire Hooks, $6.36 | 12 Inch Balloons, $9.99 | 10 Inch Balloons, $9.99 | Water Balloons, $8.59

DIY:

1. Sort balloons by color. You can skip this step, but I found it made it easier to stay organized from the beginning and let me make sure that I had roughly even amounts of each color. 

2. Inflate balloons using the balloon pump and tie off with the EZ tie. We did this assembly line style with one person inflating and another tying, and it went fast! 

3. String full-size balloons on the Balloon Deco strip, skipping holes if needed (but try to make it as full as possible), alternate sizes and shades for depth.

4. Hang the arch! We used command hooks and string at the ends for damage-free hanging. . 

5. Use the water balloons to fill in any gaps or sparse areas using the glue dots.  

6. Party!