Balloon Invitations - a fun diy for birthday girls (or boys)

My baby turns six in a few weeks. Each year, we celebrate our kiddos with a party and this nearly-six-year-old has been counting down for the past several months. This girl is excited.

Sometimes we host parties at home, sometimes we let a party place run the thing for us, but I always make the invitations. I mean, it’s what I did for my business for years and so I feel like it’s just expected, what I should do, what I have to do.

But this year, I decided to take that pressure off myself. I don’t have to make my own invitations, I said. There are plenty of options for store-bought ones. Just make it easy on yourself and buy the invitations.

So on Saturday after barre class and a quick stop by the nursery, I popped into Target determined to let myself off the invitation-making hook.

And you know what? I just couldn’t do it. I stood there in the stationery aisle with a handful of perfectly fine options and just couldn’t do it. I realized I actually like making invitations. It feels like one special thing I can do for my daughter to make her birthday feel even more exciting.

So instead of grabbing a pack of ready-made cards, I went one aisle over and grabbed a few craft things to make a very simple, yet extra fun party invitation.

Can we show you? What little girl doesn’t love a few balloons? I just added a hand-written tag and voila! Easy as can be.

Here’s what you need:

balloons (white, gold, teal) / string / confetti / helium tank / kraft tags / white pen

STEP ONE: stretch out a balloon and add a few pieces of confetti inside. This would be cute in clear balloons. Wish I would have thought of that beforehand.

STEP TWO: Fill up three balloons with helium. Note: let your nearly-six year old do this part. She/he will love it.

You can buy a small party tank that fills 30 balloons. It is around $25 and found in the party section at Target (or walmart or similar big box store). You could also have the balloons filled for you at a store like Hallmark or sometimes grocery stores will do it, but it’s usually about $1 per balloon (sometimes more?). Buying the tank felt like the easier and less expensive option.

STEP THREE: tie string to balloon. I tied a knot and let the balloon reach the ceiling, then cut the string. You could use curling ribbon, I just happen to have a humungous roll of baker’s twine and used that. Blow up as many balloons as you need. We decided to do one of each color per invitation.

STEP FOUR: write details on tags
On one side of the tag I wrote Audrey is 6. On the back are the details for the party (made up for this example).

STEP FIVE: tie three strings together to make a little loop.

STEP SIX: tie on the tag
Now go deliver!

The balloons tangle up easily, so don’t gather the whole bunch together and think you’ll be able to separate them easily. Not that I know anything about that …

We delivered the invitations to a few friends’ doors and the girls were so excited to receive them. This was a great alternative to store-bought invitations and nearly as easy. Plus, it was a fun project to do with my birthday girl.