How To Make A Balloon Arch

I can't remember where we were when we saw one, but Miss Sarah fell in love with it!
That meant adding one to her
Rainbow Birthday Party! {sigh}.

There was NO WAY I was going to "buy" one as they run $200+, delivered in my area.

So, DIY time!

I shopped around for balloons - and it varies greatly! Party City had 15 count bags for $2.99, but Wal-Mart had 12 count bags for $.99.

Wal-Mart it was.

-They didn't have red -- so we went with pink.
-The only orange ones they had in stock had tiger stripes on them, so we skipped orange.
-That left us five colors, and we figured we would need two bags of each color.

Then came the fun part: Blowing them up! I DID have a pump, but it still goes slowly...

Once they are all blown up -- you need to get out the needle and thread!
You sew together 4 balloons but ONLY sew through the ends of the balloon (after the knot).
You will be making a LOT of "clusters: 

 They seem to take up less space than the individual balloons piled up...

Now, you can take a light wire or, in our case, I had curling ribbon. 

Start with something like a paper plate to be your "anchor" as this will keep the balloons from flying off your ribbon. I made a loop on the backside of the plate for a "weight" --- but more on that in a bit.

Now, take that ribbon and you run it through the center of each balloon cluster, starting with the color you want on the end...

 Keep going, through all of your colors...

 When you get to the end, pull it tight and use another paper plate to finish it.

Now, you are ready to take outside and display!

Let's get back to those weights... if there is a breeze, and you don't have them, the cute arch will blow away/blow over. On the purple side, I put a 20oz bottle in the loop under the paper plate. The pink side is tied to a grill. It didn't go anywhere...and the kids loved it almost as much as Miss Sarah.

Just look at that happy smile!