Balloon Ceiling Birthday Surprise

Last year, my cousin went all out for my birthday. She decorated my room without me knowing and popped confetti bombs at midnight. Her birthday was a month later, Dec. 20th. I wanted to go all out- so off to Pinterest again! I found an awesome idea! A Balloon Ceiling!!!! It was going to be a challenge seeing as we were roommates at the time and she was going to be home. The plan was to line the hallway outside of her room.

        

Give yourself some time to figure out the best options. It took me about a week to plan and complete (please note that I was working 45+ hours that week, so it took longer than you probably could). The night of, it took about 5-6 hours to complete the project with me and another person.

1. Helium Tank-

I looked for a decent priced helium tank. Any tank you could buy just outright were going to be expensive for the amount of balloons I needed. So I turned to rentals and found a party store (Party Fair) an hour away with good prices. I got a medium tank to be sure not to run out- we definitely had enough. The rental was per day, so plan around when you can pick up and drop off.

2. Balloons- 
I ended up just buying balloons at Party Fair as well since I was already there. I chose 3 different colors in 12 inch latex. I bought a package of 72 each. Be careful with the type of balloons you want to use. Make sure to check how long they stay inflated. Regular latex balloons usually deflate within 18-24 hours.

3. Curling Ribbon-
I usually have rolls of curling ribbon handy (similar to: these on Amazon). I didn't use more than half. I also had scissors on hand but did not use them. The length of the ribbon was long enough that it kept its natural spiral. You can buy cheap rolls of curling ribbon in a lot of stores including Walmart.

4.Extras
Being the crafty person I am, I went to Walmart's craft section and looked for extra stuff to bring this project to the next level. I ended up with matching confetti, Happy Birthday signs, some streamers, and star shaped cardboard cutouts (picture to the right) to dangle from the ribbons. These were great because they had pre-punched holes and came in different sizes and colors. See Foil Paper Stars (Silver-5pk) from Walmart.

I originally wanted to inflate the balloons a day or two in advance and hide them in my walk-in closet. I am glad I didn't because as I said above, latex balloons deflate and wilt within 18-24 hours. Make sure to plan accordingly to workaround this, or look into other types of balloons. 

I did not think this was completely through ahead of time. At first I wanted to just fill them in my garage however there were two issues. First- the ceilings were extremely high, making it difficult to grab them. Second- thankfully my helper made a good note- helium tanks make a lot of noise and our garage was directly under her bedroom. As a precaution, we decided to inflate them in the farthest corner from her room on the same floor, which ended up to be my walk in closet. We slowly moved the completed ones into my bedroom until will had finished. Since most had ribbons already, moving them into the hallway was extremely easy.

Ask for help! I asked several people who agreed but then at the last minute didn't. I thankfully had one of my cousins helping me. If it were just me, it wouldn't have happened. Blowing up balloons is a long and tiring process. We were able to switch off tasks so we didn't wear ourselves out completely. One of us inflated the balloons and the other tied the knots. It would have been nice and quicker if we had an additional person to tie the ribbons too. If you are planning on doing a larger space, definitely look into getting more than one tank and a bunch more of people.

1. Tie the ribbon to the balloon after you put the knot.
After my cousin inflated about 25, I realized we should have been tying the ribbon to the knots as they were being inflated. Although he was tall enough to reach them, it became difficult with the amount of balloons we had. The 20-30 that did not have ribbon, were very difficult to move- we ended up using a broom and almost hit the fire sprinklers on the ceiling. Learn from my mistakes- tie the ribbon as you make the knots. It made it so easy to grab a handful of 50-60 balloons at once.

2. Cut ribbon ahead of time and you don't have to worry about exact length.
I made the ribbon all different lengths so it would be a mix when you walked through it. If you do all the same length, I would think it would be to uniform and flat.

3. Move the balloons to the final spot before adding extras.

After we filled the hallway with all the balloons, we went through and hung the star cutouts by the ribbon falling from the balloons. I scattered them around-not too many. The added bonus to the stars- as the day went on and the balloons started to deflate, they acted as anchors for a few (picture to the right.) We then hung the Happy Birthday banner right by her door and threw confetti everywhere. *NOTE* Confetti is very difficult to clean up*

4. Be ready for the cleanup.
Something I didn't expect was the next night when I got back home, 95% of the balloon were deflating and now lined the floor. With the amount of balloons we had, it became a hazard, especially with all of the ribbon. There were so many that the whole hallway floor was covered and some were flowing down the stairs. It only took 10-15 mins to clean up. I only mention it to prevent the hazard I created for myself.

It took the two of us roughly 5-6 hours to finish the whole project. When complete, the entire ceiling had 3-4 layers on balloons. With the ceiling lights, the light shined through and gave the whole place a fun pinkish tint.