Yarn Balloons

Stop pinning and start making, right? I'll be the first to admit, my boards on pinterest are a wee bit out of control. Remember this challenge, where you use your time to take pinned inspiration and make it come to life? Well, after seeing the picture below, Michelle and I pretty much went straight to the store, bought lots of glue and yarn and had at it, accompanied by Friends and Voodoo doughnuts late into the night.

Jessica Levitt of Juicy Bits

These yarn balloons are from a rainbow unicorn party, where the post links to these directions. If you're the type to figure it out as you go, this is pretty much all you need to know:

We used Elmer's glue and it worked just fine. I used an pink ombre-esque colored yarn and love the way the sphere's turned out. The density of the yarn balloons completely depends on how much yarn you wrap around the balloons. The rainbow ones have lots more yarn than my pink example. Read on for a few more tips.

If you want to make this project for decorations, give yourself plenty of time to allow for complete drying of the glue/water soaked yarn before you need them. This does not happen in a few hours. We found that even over night, there were parts of the year that was still damp in the morning, which meant that when we popped the balloon, the wet yarn caved in.

Speaking of popping the balloon and just for re-emphasis, you need to make sure you wait, wait, wait until all of the yarn is completely dry. For this smaller one pictured, this was probably a good 24+ hours. Next, I would highly suggest poking your finger in as many of the spaces to release the glued yarn from the balloon.

Doing so will help avoid the implosion of your yarn balloon into a sad twisting of stiffened yarn. I've seen it happen.

When preparing to pop the balloon, do so with the concept of slowly releasing air from the balloon, achieving this by pinching the tied end of the balloon if possible and making a teeny tiny incision. The slow release of air will also help the yarn sphere hold its shape. Then, you will have a wrinkly little balloon to remove from inside your sphere.

Now, just figure out where you're going to hang them, in a kid's room, above the food table at a party or maybe not hang them at all. I think it would be cute to make small ones in holiday colors, then fill a festive bowl as a table decoration.

Oh and don't forget Friends and Voodoo. :)

 

This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page. Go check them out for more inspiration!