Time Flies and Hot Air balloon Birthday Theme

When I saw this idea, I knew I wanted to re-create it. It seemed a little intimidating at first, but overall it was super easy and took about 1 hour from start to finish.

DIY Hot Air Balloon

What I used:

I found most of my items at Hobby Lobby for cheap!

A large basket

Four 48″ dowels

Medium sized foam wreath

Spay paint

Ribbon

Twine

At Home Depot, I picked up zipties

An easy search on amazon got me this hot air balloon netting, and I bought this large beach ball on amazon for about $12

I wanted to spray paint the ball pink, white, and gold but I ended up just spraying it all white and letting the colors fade out to get the pastel palette of my daughter’s party.

How to make a hot air ballon in 7 steps

Here’s the steps of how I made this hot air balloon for my daughter’s first birthday “time flies” theme.

1. spray paint the beach ball.
2. spray paint the netting.
3. spray paint the foam wreath and the dowels
4. loop the tiptoes around the dowels and through the basket. pull tight. I put two on each dowel- one low and one at the top of the basket.)
5. Make holes in your wreath for the dowels. These dowels were 3/4 inch wide so we used a 3/4 inch drill bit and pushed them in. Then sealed with glue but if you’re going to take this apart or need to transport it, don’t glue them.
6. Place the ball on top and cover with the netting. I wrapped the netting around the dowels but you can cut some off and leave it hanging down the center for a cute look.
7. Lastly, I decorated! I found the “One” banner on amazon as well

For a final touch of this time flies birthday theme, I added polyester fill (pillow stuffing) into a 4×6 piece of  burlap, stapled it closed and stapled on some lace! Normally I would have ditched the stapler and used my hot glue gun but I waited until last minute and mama had to rush!

This was a very easy project and easy DIY hot air balloon. It can be used for a halloween costume, birthday, or just a fun photoshoot prop!