Another Wreath

Totally took the idea from Pinterest, but instead of using water balloons, I used full-size 12-inch balloons.  It's much fuller, which means the pennants are a little more obscured, but I like it.

another cell phone photo, sorry!

Some notes:

This is a foam wreath that I bought at JoAnn.  It's the white foam that's kind-of squared off, not tubular.

I wrapped the wreath in yarn first, just like my friend Kristin did.  (She was ahead of me on birthday schedules and so she was way ahead of me on wreath-making!  She also totally inspired me to get my tail in gear to make this!)   I thought it was a great idea, and she's right; the yarn definitely makes it look more finished.  (And you don't have to worry if your balloons don't cover everything and occasionally show a little of the side of the wreath, which is also a really nice bonus to the yarn idea.)  If you're making this wreath, I wrapped this two times and it took almost the entire skein.  I wasn't too worried about gaps in the yarn because I knew they were being covered, so once I was happy with how it looked after two go-rounds, I stopped and preserved the rest of the yarn for another (small) project where it might be handy.

When I was done wrapping the yarn and ready to start making the wreath, I did a quick search for buying balloons in bulk and was quickly shocked at how expensive balloons are!  Of course, I thought I needed between 400-500 balloons, too, but that was based on the large wreath size and the smaller balloons.  I checked on etsy for balloon wreaths and they were almost all selling around $60, which made sense considering the cost of balloons -- or, more correctly, what I thought was the cost for balloons.  Then of all things, I bought a pack of balloons at WalMart, and as it turned out I used exactly 216 balloons. MUCH better!  The realization that I wasn't going to spend $50 on balloons helped me to get back on track.  I also was surprisingly pleased that I liked the "assorted colors" mix at WalMart better than the ones online and at Party City.  Who knew?!

And, although I considered doing it as a short-cut, I didn't buy felt stick-on letters.  I just bought felt and sat with my tiny sewing scissors to cut the letters after the kids went to bed.  The string between the pennants is embroidery floss.  I kept it extra long on each side after I strung the pennants, and then literally just tied it in the back, hiding the floss among the balloons.  Then I knotted it and pinned through the knot -- so I don't think it will go anywhere.  (And if it does, it's easy enough to fix!)

Mick likes the wreath, and the kids are fascinated by it.

And it's staying up all week, in honor of Mick's and CAM's shared birthday!

--Jen

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