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When I was planning my daughter’s 4th birthday party (Art Party themed), I knew I wanted to make a statement with a backdrop.
I wasn’t sure what kind of backdrop at first, but I knew I wanted balloons and rainbows! Starting with that in mind I searched Pinterest until I decided on making a fringe backdrop with a balloon garland.
Now, I had never made a balloon garland before, so I didn’t really know how many balloons I would need or how many of each size.
I ended up getting a basic rainbow balloon kit off of Amazon. It was a good price for number of balloons I would get. It was also perfect since it came with all the colors of the rainbow and 3 different sizes of balloons!
Since I was making a rainbow balloon garland, I wanted the rest of the backdrop to be plain, but not TOO plain.
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The White Fringe Backdrop
I made a white fringe backdrop with shimmery metallic strands mixed in to give it a little extra pop. You can easily leave out the shimmery strands, but my 3-year-old was all about glitter, so it worked perfectly for us!
The fringe was made with 6 plain white rectangle plastic tablecloths that I got from the Dollar Tree and 1 holographic door curtain from Hobby Lobby. You can also get the tablecloths and door curtain from Amazon if you don’t want to go to the store. (If you want a large balloon garland like what mine ended up being, I would recommend doubling this)
Here is a great tutorial by The House Of Hood Blog on how to make a fringe backdrop.
The way I did mine was 5-7 strips of white, and then 3-4 strands of the tinsel tied together. I did 2 strings of fringe and used 6 tablecloths all together. One strand was on the top half of my backdrop stand, and one on the bottom.
When I put the strips on, I put them at varying lengths to give it a more random look. It took about 4 hours to get done (while dealing with 3 little ones).
I love how it turned out!
The Rainbow Balloon Garland
After I attached them to my backdrop stand (You can get one here if you need one!) I got to work on my rainbow balloon garland.
A couple of my little ones were having a rough day so I completely forgot to get pictures of building my garland. I’ll do a full tutorial on my next garland with pictures (and hopefully video!)
First, I blew up all of my balloons with my balloon pump (so easy and quick!!!)
Then, starting with my 12″ balloons, I combined each color together two at a time. Next, I stuck them all together with a fishing line.
After that, I put the rainbow balloon garland of 12″ balloons on the backdrop stand where I liked it, and secured it with more fishing line.
The 18″ balloons came next. I attached each to a piece of fishing line and stuck them on the garland where I judged them to look best. I did try to have more visual weight at the bottom, but since I was concentrating on keeping the colors each in their own color block, I was limited on how to make that happen.
Finally, I put the 5″ balloons in clusters of 4. Then, combined 2 clusters with a bit of string, and placed them in any holes that I saw in the design.
I finalized the whole look with one of my printable banners. I made these specifically for my daughter’s Art Party (You can read more about it here)
All in all, I think I did pretty good for it being my first time!
Leave a comment and let me know what you think!