Give your balloons a second life with up-cycling. This week we show you how to turn your used balloon into an award ribbon. This could be a fun way to say “thanks” to guests or another way to turn a house-hold project into a game with different award categories.
Materials:
- Your used mylar balloons
- Tape, we recommend finding a plant-based or recycled-material tape like this Eco-Magic Tape by 3M
- Scissors
- Marker or Gel Pen. I personally love gold gel pens with bold tips like these by Uni-Ball
- Two different colors of scrap construction or craft paper
Steps:
- Deflate and remove the string from your balloon.
- Cut down the seam of your ballon so you have two balloon halves
- Cut two 3-4 inch diameter circles out of your craft paper
- Write your award name on one of the circles , flip the circle so the name is facing down
- Cut another two circles from your accent colored paper that are slightly bigger than the first set of circles
- Take one of the halves and cut 20 strips about a .5 inch thick and 5 inches long (deviation along the balloon is OK!)
- Take one of your balloon strips, fold it in half the long way and tape the loose edges of the strip to the circle back (repeat until you have made a perimeter of balloon)
- Add a second layer of balloon strips the same way you did the first, layering in the second so that they “peak” out from the first layer
- Add the other circle of construction paper to the back to tidy up the ribbon’s back giving you space to add a safety pin, magnet, or piece of tape
- Now for the bottom half of your ribbon, cut 1 4-5 inch x 2 inch strip of craft paper, along one of the short end in-cut a triangle or “v-shape”
- Cut 1 piece of balloon slightly smaller than the paper piece created in the step above and tape it to the top
- Create balloon material fringe by “curling” the mylar as you would wrapping ribbon
- Tape the ribbon bottom to the top and add your balloon fringe
- Now, you’ve got a “winner!”
