How to Make a Balloon Bouquet & Put Vinyl on Balloons!

Materials

• One (1) 24" Bobo Balloon - Extras are a good idea!
• Four or Six (4-6) 5" Latex Balloons — to go inside the Bobo balloon - Extras are a good idea!
• One (1) Balloon Stick and Cup — for attaching the balloon to the gift box
• One (1) Gift Box — I used a 4.5" tall cylindrical box
• Permanent Vinyl in a few Colors
• Cricut StandardGrip Transfer Tape
• Several Sheets of Tissue Paper in a few Colors
• Ribbon — optional, for tying around the finished box
• Confetti — optional, for placing inside the Bobo balloon in addition to or instead of the latex balloons
• Coffee Filters — optional, to fill extra space in the box
• Design #386 – My free template (available in my free resource library—get the password at the bottom of this post)

Tools

• A method to cut your vinyl — I used the amazing Cricut Maker 3 but you can also use the Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore Series
• Cricut StandardGrip Machine Mat
• Balloon Pump
• Brayer
• Weeding Tool
• Scraper Tool
• Lint-Free Cloth — to make the transfer tape less sticky
• Painter's Tape — to hold the balloon in place while applying the vinyl
• Hot Glue Gun and Sticks — to attach the balloon stick, tissue paper, and ribbon to the gift box
• Measuring Tape
• Scissors — to cut the balloon stick, ribbon, and decals
• Glue Dots — optional, to attach ribbon to the balloon

Instructions

NOTE: This project uses latex balloons, which some people are allergic to. Please check with the recipient before gifting items involving latex to be safe! If the latex will be an issue, I recommend adding a custom vinyl design to mylar balloons.

STEP 1: GET MY FREE VINYL BALLOON BOUQUET DECAL SVG FILES

First, download my Vinyl Balloon Bouquet Decal SVG/DXF/PDF files from my free resource library. It's Design #386. There are several design options in the folder, but I’ll show you how to make the customizable birthday decal, which is titled "balloon-bouquet-decals-birthday-custom-jennifermaker-SVG." You can follow the same basic steps for all the designs. Upload the SVG file to Cricut Design Space and add it to your Canvas.

TIP: If you are not sure how to upload an SVG cut file to Cricut Design Space, watch this helpful video training series I made. If you are on an iPad or iPhone, here is how to download and upload SVG files to the Cricut Design Space app. 

This is what my Vinyl Balloon Bouquet Customizable Birthday Decal SVG file looks like on my Canvas.

STEP 2: CUSTOMIZE AND CUT THE DECAL

This design is sized for the 24” Bobo balloon from the materials list and will make a decal that is approximately 9” wide by 7.5” tall. If you are placing the decal on a different sized balloon, resize it accordingly. You can click and drag the resize icon in the lower right hand corner of the design, or type a new dimension into the width ("W") box at the top menu under "Size."

NOTE: Remember to keep the Lock icon locked to maintain the design proportions!

If you need help resizing an SVG in Cricut Design Space, you can check out my resizing guide where I explain exactly what you need to do to resize any design to fit your needs.

You’ll notice there are nine layers in this design file. We’ll apply the vinyl to the curved balloon in separate pieces to prevent bubbles or wrinkles. It’s also easier to remove smaller transfer tape pieces from the balloon without popping it!

This design says "Happy Birthday Name" so you can customize it with any name you wish. Let me show you how!

With the design still selected, click on "UnGroup" at the top of the Layers panel. Now, click on the word "Name" to highlight it in the Layers panel. We'll hide this layer so we can replace it with a new name. Click the Layer’s Eye icon to hide it.

Now, you can add any name and font you want! Click the Text icon on the left hand side of the screen. A box with "Text" highlighted in it will appear on the Canvas. Without clicking anything else, type in the name you want. I'll use "Alexa." Then, click the box that says "Cricut Sans" under Font in the top menu to see your font options.

TIP: If you need help filtering and finding the best fonts, get my Cricut Font Finder cheat sheet!

Scroll through and click a font name to see how your name looks until you find one you like. If you click off of your name, click it to change the font or double-click to type in a new name. Make sure your font choice doesn't have a price next to it to avoid a charge when you go to cut the design. I'm going to use the font Tingler Print, which you can find a link to in the Notes. Use the font you like best.

TIP: If you need help uploading a font to Design Space, check out my handy tutorial!

Next, move the text box with the name you just typed into position under the word "Birthday." Change the color to match the word "Happy" if you want your colors to match mine. You can do this by clicking on the colored square in the top menu and selecting the blue swatch shown under "Material colors." You can also resize your name now if you'd like it bigger or smaller.

Once your name is centered, colored, and sized the way you like, look at the stars on either side. If the new name takes up more or less space than Name did, the stars might look too close or far from the design. It’s an easy fix! Click and drag each star closer to or further from the new name until you like how the design looks. If you make a mistake, just click the Undo arrow in the top menu. Remember, we’ll place the design elements separately, so it doesn’t have to be perfect on the screen.

NOTE: The “Happy Mother’s Day” decal can also be customized using the same process as above. You’ll just want to hide the “Mother’s” layer and replace it with another word, such as “Father’s” or “Grandparents’” before cutting. If you want the fonts to match, use Beachwood, which is linked in the bottom notes. This is a script font, which means we want any connected letters to cut as one piece -- and I'm happy to report that Cricut already knows this and auto-welds them for us when we go to cut it – so there’s no need to weld it manually.

Now we're ready to cut! Select the correct machine in the top menu and click "Make It" to move to the Prepare screen. A pop-up window might appear asking how you want to load your materials. Select "On Mat" and click "Continue" unless you're using Smart Vinyl.

On the Prepare screen, if you’re using the same colors as me, you should see three separate mats: one with six stars; one with the words "Happy" and the name; and one with the word "Birthday" and the two sets of sparkles. The star mat has four elements: two small standalone stars and two mirrored sets of stars.

We're going to cut each of these nine elements apart before applying them to the balloon, so you may need to move them on the mats to add space for cutting them apart with scissors. Click on an element and drag it just enough to cut between each with a pair of scissors. Here's what my elements look like on my three mats after spacing them out.

Once you have everything placed where you like it, click "Continue" to move to the Make screen.

Under "Set Base Material," choose "Premium Vinyl - Permanent Glossy," which means permanent vinyl. Make sure your Cricut Fine-Point Blade is clean and in Clamp B as indicated on the screen. I always change my Pressure to "More" for a cleaner cut.

Put your vinyl shiny side up on your machine mat, making sure it covers the design area visible on your screen. To see your design placement larger, click "Edit" below the mat thumbnail and "Done" when you're ready. Use a brayer to get the vinyl as smooth as possible on your mat.

Then, load your mat with your first color into your Cricut and press the flashing button to begin cutting. When the cut is complete, unload that mat, flip it over on your workspace, and gently bend it to release the vinyl and its carrier sheet, keeping the design as flat as possible. Load your next layer making sure to follow the order shown on your screen. Continue until all of your vinyl is cut.

STEP 3: PREPARE THE DECALS

Now we need to weed our designs. If you cut the decals from large vinyl sheets, trim the extra with scissors to use it for another project. With your weeding tool, remove all the vinyl around the letters and designs. Don't forget to remove the centers of any letters that have them, such as the "B" in "Birthday."

Now that the designs are weeded, we can cut them into separate pieces to make it easier to apply them to the balloon. We’ll have nine pieces that will match the nine layers in our design: one that says “Happy,” one that says “Birthday,” one for the name you chose, two sets of sparkles (one for the top and one for the bottom), two small stars to go on either side of your name, and two sets of stars to go on either side of the words “Happy Birthday.”

We'll use transfer tape to move the decals from their carrier sheets to the balloon. Cut a piece of transfer tape a bit larger than the word “Birthday,” as we’ll be applying that piece first. Remove the backing from the transfer tape.

TIP: I found that making the transfer tape a little less sticky really helped me when I removed it from the balloon. To do this, place a lint-free cloth or a towel flat on your work surface and stick the transfer tape to it. When you pull the tape away, you’ll notice that it now has some fuzz on it. Now it will grab the balloon less!

Next, apply the transfer tape to your “Birthday” vinyl decal by holding the transfer tape in the shape of a taco, a "U" shape, then put the bottom of your “taco” onto the middle of your design. Smooth the tape over the decal from the center outward to minimize wrinkles and bubbles.

With the transfer tape in place, run a scraper tool or other hard and flat-edged item (like a store loyalty card) all over the decal's front and back with medium pressure. This is called burnishing and encourages the transfer tape to stick to the shiny side of the vinyl, moving the decal from the backing paper to the tape.

TIP: We can use the same piece of transfer tape for all nine pieces of our decal, saving us time and tape! This will also make it easier to remove the tape from the balloon, as a used piece of transfer tape is much less sticky than a new one.

STEP 4: PREPARE THE BALLOON AND BOUQUET MATERIALS

Now we'll put together the base of our bouquet using a gift box, ribbon, a balloon stick, and tissue paper. I used a cylindrical gift box that is about 4.5" tall, but you can use whichever size you wish. You can also use ribbon to decorate the base. Turn on your glue gun and let it heat up so it’s ready.

If you're using ribbon, measure out enough to go around the sides of the box and make a bow at the front. For mine, I cut a piece about 39" long. Tie the ribbon and keep the bow in place with a dot of hot glue.

Place the items and decorations in the box to see how tall they will be, roughly. Remember, you can use coffee filters or other inexpensive paper as the bottom layer to fill up any empty space and prop up whatever you add to the box. We’ll trim and glue the balloon stick to the inner bottom of the box so it keeps the balloon in place above the decorations. I cut the stick to about 9" but you can use whatever length works for your gift box. Leave enough of the stick showing above the box to attach your balloon cup to it later.

Remove your decorations so you can reach the bottom of the box. Put a large dot of hot glue in the center of your gift box’s inner bottom and place one end of your balloon stick in it. Hold the stick upright until the glue dries — this won't take long. Don’t add the balloon cup just yet. The hot glue holds the stick pretty well, but try not to jostle it too much! If it comes apart, glue it in place again.

Reassemble the decorations around the stick. I used tissue paper from the package in my materials list, but feel free to experiment. You could also fill yours with silk or paper flowers, candy, or even small toys or gifts. Feel free to hot glue the fillers and tissue paper in place.

NOTE: It’s a good idea to unplug your glue gun and put it away to avoid popping the balloons.

Now we can blow up the balloons! You may want to remove any jewelry you have on just so it doesn’t get in your way or present any potential for popping the balloon. Smooth nails will help, too!

First, we need to stretch our Bobo balloon to help it reach its maximum size when we blow it up for real. Hold the balloon in both hands and pull it tightly in opposite directions. Go around the entire perimeter of the balloon, stretching it as you go. Repeat several times. When you're done, your balloon will look very wrinkly. This is what we want!

TIP: To help make your balloon even larger, you can add some air to it now, and then release the air right away. Adding air until it's no longer wrinkly helps to expand the plastic material and makes it easier to blow up later.

Next, we'll blow up some of the 5'' colored balloons inside our large Bobo balloon. Secure a small latex balloon on your balloon pump but don’t inflate it. Place the small balloon inside your uninflated Bobo balloon. Push the main part of the small balloon up inside the large area of the Bobo balloon. You may need to bunch up or fold the long opening of the Bobo in order to get the small balloon all the way inside it.

Hold the opening of the Bobo balloon tightly around the end of the balloon pump to keep it in place while inflating the small balloon inside of it. Once the small balloon is inflated (four or five pumps), hold its end tightly and remove it from the balloon pump. You don’t want to let any air escape or lose it inside of the Bobo balloon! Now tie the small balloon tightly and let it go so it’s completely inside the Bobo balloon.

Repeat for three to five more small balloons. Once you have a couple blown up inside the big balloon, it will start getting crowded and you may need to add some air to the Bobo balloon itself. Add only enough air to give the small balloons some room and allow space for more balloons. If you want to add confetti or other non-sharp decorations to the Bobo, this is a good time to do it.

TIP: I kept air in the Bobo balloon using a binder clip or clothes pin to hold it closed. This allowed me to use both hands to get my next latex balloon attached to the air pump and ready to go. And stretch my hands! Don't worry if some of the air escapes while you're placing your next balloon inside. Your Bobo balloon will expand with each new balloon and you can add more air as needed.

Once you have your small balloons inside, you can blow up the Bobo balloon to your desired size. For our design to look straight, the Bobo balloon needs to be more of a circle than an egg shape. Since the balloon is so strong, we can shape it a bit while blowing it up!

Blow it up until the seams don't show any wrinkles. Hold the opening closed and carefully flip the balloon so the top is touching your work surface. With a bit of downward pressure, roll the Bobo’s top to push the air more toward the opening. This will help the top and bottom of the balloon stretch into more of a circle. Let a bit of air out and repeat the rounding process. Then, fully inflate the balloon and check that it’s closer to a circle than an egg. Repeat as needed!

I found that I could keep adding air even after it looked full, as the balloon’s plastic expands quite a bit. After some experimentation, my fully-inflated Bobo balloons had circumferences somewhere between 40" and 48" around the widest part.

Hold the end of the Bobo balloon tightly and remove the pump, making sure you don't let the air escape. Twist the end several times before tying it off. Tie it as tightly as you can. I tied an uninflated latex balloon in a knot above the Bobo's balloon's knot to secure it even more.

Now that our Bobo balloon is blown up, we need to secure it to our work surface to keep it in place while we apply the decals. Three very long strips of painter's tape did the trick.

Check to make sure your balloon is centered on your work surface by locating the seams on each side. One seam should be on the left side of the balloon and the other should be on the right, and they should be level with each other when you look at the balloon from the bottom where it's tied.

With your inflated balloon lying flat on your work surface, attach one piece of tape to each side of the balloon and another to the top. Then attach the opposite ends of the tape to your work surface, pulling them tightly enough to keep the balloon from moving around.

If your balloon doesn't look like this, reposition it and reattach the tape until it does.

Now that your balloon is secure, let's mark the center to help with application. Look at your balloon from above and use your best judgment to determine where the horizontal center is. Place a small, square piece of tape on the balloon in that spot. Measure the distance from the left seam to the piece of tape and the distance from the right seam to the tape. These distances should match. If they don't, carefully remove your tape and reposition it accordingly.

We also want the decal to be centered from top to bottom. Measure the distance from the top seam to the tape and then from the knot to the tape. These distances should also match. If they don't, carefully remove your tape and reposition it again.

Now place a strip of tape — I used one about 6” long — horizontally centered on top of your original piece of tape. We’ll use this to align the first part of our decal so it’s nice and level. Look at your tape from above and make sure it looks level. We don’t want it slanting down to the left or right! Reposition it if you need to.

STEP 5: APPLY THE VINYL BALLOON BOUQUET DECAL

Now that our balloon center is marked and it’s secure, we’re ready to apply the decal!

TIP: It helps to have a printout of your design next to you for reference when positioning your words and designs on the balloon. You could also have your computer nearby with your design open on your Design Space Canvas.

We’ll start with the center part of our design, which is the word “Birthday.” Flip your first decal over and remove the paper backing from the vinyl. If your decal is still sticking to the backing paper, just replace the transfer tape and burnish again.

Hold it just above the painter's tape, aligning the decal’s and tape’s centers. Don’t position it so that the vinyl will be placed over the tape. If they overlap, it will be hard to remove the painter's tape. Make sure it looks level in comparison to your tape and then lightly place the center of the decal onto the balloon. Allow the sides to fall flat against the balloon but don't press anything down just yet.

Step back and take a look at the word to see if it's positioned how you'd like. If not, no worries! You can still remove the decal and try again because you haven't pressed down to adhere it yet.

Once you've got your decal in place, press it down with your fingers from the center outward. Be gentle and try not to use your fingernails because we don’t want to accidentally pop the balloon.

Press one letter down at a time, making sure to get them nice and smooth before moving on to the next letter. Once you've pressed everything down, remove the painter's tape and transfer tape. Go slowly and make sure all the vinyl letters stay attached to the balloon. If a letter starts to come up, just push it back down before moving on. Place the transfer tape on the next decal so it’s ready.

Since we know “Birthday” is positioned perfectly, you can apply the word "Happy" above using it as your reference with the same technique. Make sure you're happy with the placement before pressing down.

Next, apply the name you chose underneath the word "Birthday." The three words will be centered with each other in the middle of the balloon. After you've applied the words, add the red sparkles. You can use your design printout or Canvas to help with the layout.

Finally, apply the stars. The small stars go on either side of your name. The sets of stars go to the left and right of the words "Happy Birthday," with the large stars at the top on either side of "Happy."

You did it! You've customized your balloon with a fun birthday decal. Now all we have to do is attach the balloon to the stick we glued to our gift box earlier.

STEP 6: ASSEMBLE THE BALLOON BOUQUET

Insert the Bobo balloon’s tied end into the balloon cup slit and wrap it around the base. If your end isn't long enough to wrap around, that's okay! It should still stay attached. You can even add some tape or a rubber band if you want to make sure it's attached really well.

After you've attached the cup to the balloon, slide it onto the stick.

TIP: If your words don’t look level when looking at your balloon from a distance, that’s OK! I have an easy fix. Just detach your balloon from the cup and reposition it until the words look just right. Take a glue dot and use it to secure the balloon to the cup in this spot. You may need to use more than one dot.

If you'd like, you can add some finishing touches with ribbon and bows! You can tie a bow around the stick to hide the balloon cup. I used an 18” piece for my bow.

Also, a bow on top is super cute! I found two methods that work, depending on your bow-tying skills.

For the first method, I cut two pieces of ribbon to 46" each. Attach one end of each ribbon to the left and right sides of the inside top of your gift box with glue dots or tape. Wrap the ribbons up the sides of the balloon and tie them in a bow at the very top. Trim the excess tails if you like.

Another option is to cut one long piece of ribbon – 80” worked for mine – and stick one end to the inner left side of the box. Run the ribbon up over the top of the balloon and secure the end to the right inner side of the box, making sure the ribbon is pretty taught. Trim or hide the excess. Then, cut another piece of ribbon – I used 22” – to tie into a standalone bow. Once you’ve made your bow, attach it to the top of your balloon with a glue dot. Don’t use hot glue for this part!

STEP 7: SHOW IT OFF

That's it! You've finished your custom balloon bouquet and can now display it at a birthday party or give it as a thoughtful handmade gift to a friend or family member. Here is what my finished bouquet looks like. I just love how unique and colorful it is!

Balloon bouquets make great gifts for all kinds of occasions. You could make one with flowers for Mother's Day, one with candy for Valentine's Day, or one with fairy lights wrapped around it as a centerpiece for a wedding. You could even add things like confetti, flowers, tissue paper, feathers, or pom poms inside your Bobo balloon instead of, or in addition to, your small balloons. There are so many options for customizing your bouquet, and I'd love to see what you come up with!

Notes