Five Tips for Perfect DIY Confetti Balloons

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I'm certainly not the first person to think of putting confetti in a clear balloon, but I felt that it was worth posting to share the tips and tricks I figured out (the hard way) for what works and what doesn't when you want to make your own custom color blend of confetti to go in a balloon.  Want to know how to make the confetti stick to the inside of a balloon?  Or how to make your own custom confetti to match your party colors?  These are all things that I struggled with, and solved.

Clear balloon filled with tissue paper confetti and sequins, on a black background.

DIY Confetti Balloon Tip 1:

  • If you're going to use sequins, use flat ones, not the faceted cupped ones, if you want them to stick to the sides of the balloons.   The cupped sequins do NOT stick.

Clear balloons, sequins, tissue paper, and paper punches on a black background.

DIY Confetti Balloon Tip 2:  

  • tissue paper is perfect for this craft--colorful, nice shapes, and very lightweight.  
  • If you're punching out shapes instead of just cutting chibbles of paper, punch through the entire stack of tissue paper at one time.  Not only is it a lot faster, but the punch just performs better and makes cleaner cuts when you punch through the whole stack at once.  The tissue paper tends to just tear if you try to punch one sheet at a time.  I learned this when making miniature tissue paper flowers for the Day of the Dead party a few years ago.

Unfilled clear balloon with tissue paper confetti inside and beside the balloon on a black surface.

Confetti Balloon Tip 3:  

  • Little confetti fits down the throat of the balloon pretty easily, but if you're using larger circles and shapes, it's really helpful to have another set of hands to help.  One person can stretch the mouth of the balloon wide, and the other can carefully put the tissue paper shapes in the chamber.  When using tissue paper, you want to avoid crumpling up the shapes as much as possible.  If they're too crumpled, not only do they not look as good, they don't stick very well to the sides of the balloon.

Tissue paper and paper punches on a weathered white wood background.

DIY Confetti Balloon Tip 4:

  • DON'T try to cut that super shiny foil tissue paper with craft punches!   Bad, bad, punch-destroying idea.  It clogs up the works and you will never use the punch again.
  • If you want to use the foil stuff, just hand cut little chibbles and shapes.

Children playing badminton with butterfly nets and a clear balloon with paper butterfly shapes inside.

Confetti Balloon Tip 5:  

  • You can use scrapbook paper, but tissue paper is vastly better at sticking to the inside of the balloon.  I didn't want the paper butterflies in the balloon to stick to the side walls, but rather to flutter and move around inside the balloon for the Butterfly Badminton game at my daughter's butterfly birthday party.  So if you want a polka-dot kind of effect, and want the confetti to spread out over the whole balloon, the lighter weight the better.  Tissue paper is perfect.

BONUS TIPS!

Yesterday, one of my readers, Maren, posted a couple of very valuable additional tips on my Facebook page that were so good I just had to share them here.

Maren's Helium Confetti Balloon Tip #1:  

  • If you're planning helium balloons, don't use hi-float, because it'll get the tissue paper confetti all wet.  I totally would have had to learn this one the hard way, had Maren not warned me first.

Maren's Confetti Balloon Tip #2:

  • If you're having trouble getting the confetti to stick to the sides of the balloons, create a little static electricity by rubbing balloons on the carpet.  I evidently have always had enough static around here in the dry desert that I never had to take this step, but it makes so much sense, and is probably key to having success with confetti filled balloons in many parts of the world.

Thank you so much for sharing, Maren!!

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Nicole Wills, creator of Tikkido

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