A New Birthday Tradition

This fall, my love for crafts has resurfaced. I love making things but have never considered myself creative. I can copy a lot of things, but I rarely come up with an idea all on my own. My friend Amy is very creative and she uses her talents with photography and paper works. She stumbled across a blog with directions for making a balloon wreath. Since her baby was turning one, she decided to make the wreath. When I saw it, I LOVED it...and I knew there was a little man in my home that would love it just as much! Jason's birthday was just around the corner, so Jackson and I decided to go for it.

It only took me six trips to the store to get everything I needed! I went to three stores just trying to find everything - first to Walmart (because it is so close), then to Michaels, and finally to the only store I will ever go to...Hobby Lobby. I had to go back to get more balloons so I tried Walmart, but their balloons weren't the right colors. I cleared Hobby Lobby of their packs of 72 and amazingly had to go back for one more bag. I used 430 balloons!!

This wreath is super easy to make. You only need a straw wreath with the plastic on, floral/greening pins, and lots of balloons. Jackson was a great help. He separated the balloons by color (I found this to be better than just grabbing out of the bag because some bags were full of white balloons and other bags had tons of green and orange.)

I love Jackson's outfit. He's wearing his favorite comfy pants and his Mickey Mouse Christmas fleece pajama top...in the heat of our upstairs home in September! (For the record, so I never forget and my kids believe me one day, our upstairs is constantly between 82-85 degrees F even though I set the air on 74 and never turn it one degree above. There is only one AC unit in the house, so the upstairs stays hot all the time. My kids wake up from naps with wet heads. At night, we sleep with no covers on and the ceiling fan, box fan and pedestal fan blowing on us. I've forgotten what it feels like to hear small noises. It's been fun!)

Jackson was an excellent helper. I love doing things that he can be a part of. He was so excited to make this wreath for his daddy's birthday. He was so excited to surprise Jason with it. I was amazed that he kept it a secret.

If you make this wreath, the directions are on the blog referenced above. If you make this with a child, this might be an easier way for them to do it. Jackson preferred doing it this way:

He stuck the floral pin into the wreath. Then he put the end of his balloon through the middle of the floral pin:

He used the balloon to cushion his fingers while he pushed the floral pin all the way into the wreath:

He put balloons all over the wreath and then I just filled in around him. When he got tired, I finished the rest. The straw wreath is small, but when you fill it with balloons, it gets really full:

Amy put a bow on her wreath. I bought ribbon to put a bow on mine but I never could make the bow look right. I'll work on it for Jackson's birthday because this wreath will now adorn our front door the week of each family member's birthday. I LOVE it!!