It’s B week in kindergarten starting tomorrow. We are going to make these amazing balloon bowls which I kind of stumbled upon by accident. They started off as hot air balloons from Collage Collage. After I slaved over the first balloon, which took waaay longer than I thought, I accidentally popped the balloon inside while removing the tape holding it to the cup. Turned out to be a major blessing in disguise because I realized the balloon separates itself from the tissue paper in the COOLEST way, with sound effects and everything, and I could trim it into a supercool bowl. From there I tried balloons in different sizes because there is no way the kids are going to sit for 45 minutes modge podging. I am so pleased with the process and the results, especially the balloon popping. The kids will love that part. Stay tuned for pictures of their balloon bowls. I tried to include pictures of every step. I really encourage you to try this at home! Really fun project!
Here are the steps. 1. Attach a balloon to a cup with duct tape. Make sure to put the tape on four sides of the balloon to keep it secure. 2. Modge Podge the whole balloon where you want the bowl shape to be. 3. Cover with tissue paper. 4. Let dry in the sun. 5. POP the balloon and watch it shrivel up and separate from the tissue paper. 6. Reshape the bowl. 7. Hem the edge if you want. It looks cool ragged too.
You can see kindergarten results Part 1 here.
Hey Meri Cherry! Sorry to hear that your hot air balloon experience wasn’t a hit – I should clarify that the project you saw on line was a part of our week long Crafternoon program, so we worked on it for half an hour for 5 days! Not a one stop project at all! Happy you found a way to modify it, and please don’t hesitate to email questions about projects that you see!
Hi! Thanks for your email. How cool. I figured as much once I tried it. Plus, it looks like you are using something different than just tissue paper on your balloons? It all worked out and I’m really excited to do the bowls with my class tomorrow. I really love your blog and all the great stuff you are doing. I wish you would do tutorials with the great projects! They all look like so much fun.
These are so pretty! I found these on pintrest and wanted to give a class or two a fun special end-of-the-year project. How many layers of tissue paper did you use? Also how long did you let it dry before popping the balloon?
Thank you! I did at least two layers of tissue paper. The drying is the key part. The first time I let them dry over night and that was a big disaster because the balloons lost some air, which prevented the crinkle/pop affect that you want. I’ve learned to sit them in a sunny area if possible and let dry just a few hours and then pop. You want to hear a crackle from the balloon and tissue paper separating. Let me know how it goes. You may want to do one in advance to get the hang of it. It’s super fun to gather the kids around and wait to hear the crackle.