Birthday Balloon Wreath

Another easy, quick project with beautiful results - my favourite kind!

Here are the supplies needed:

-One pool noodle (or styrofoam wreath form)

-Duct tape (if using pool noodle)

-Balloons.  I used 350 full-size balloons.

-Floral pins.  I used 360 of these (a few extra for the joint on the wreath.)

-Ribbon

The pool noodle is used in place of a wreath form.  Honestly, wreath forms are almost always the most expensive part of my projects so I've been looking for an alternative.  Pool noodles are $2 at the dollar store - perfect!

Instructions:

1.  Cut your pool noodle to the desired length.  I cut a little over a foot off of mine and left myself with about 4' of noodle.  You can just cut it with a big kitchen knife - if you've got good knives, this is easier than you'd think!

2.  Bend your noodle into a circle and secure the ends with floral pins (putting one side of the pin on each side of the cut) and duct tape.  Nothing else will be strong enough to hold it.  Ta-da!  You have a wreath form with a $2 price tag (and a couple of strips of duct tape.)

3.  Feed a floral pin through the middle of your balloon.

4.  Stick the pin into the form.

5.  Repeat.

6. ...and keep repeating.

7.  And keep repeating.  This is what the wreath looks like with 100 balloons:

8.  Keep going.  This is 200 balloons:

9.  Keep going until you're *almost* finished.  Leave a gap just wider than the width of your ribbon.

10.  Feed the ribbon through the gap and tie a knot or bow at the top.  Continue pinning balloons over top of the ribbon to cover and fill the gap.

You're done!  Easy as that!

The cost?
Pool noodle - $2
Spool of ribbon - $3.50
Balloons (5 packages of 72 balloons at $5 each) - $25
Floral pins (4 packages of 100 at $1.44 each) - $5.76
Incidentals - some duct tape.

TOTAL:  $36.26.  Not too shabby!

Enjoy and happy crafting!