How to Make Confetti-Filled Balloons

If you want to make a real impression at your next big event, you can’t go wrong with balloons. Whether it’s big, colourful ones roaming on the floor of a child’s birthday party, or sophisticated white helium balloons tied together and peppered throughout a wedding reception: balloons will always create a lively atmosphere for any occasion.

But, sometimes, you’ll want to step up your decorating game further, and what better way to do that than by adding some confetti into the mix? Confetti-filled balloons sparkle and dazzle and add something special to the overall feel of an event. But if you don’t want to buy confetti-filled balloons, then you can make your own at home. Here’s how:

Get That Confetti

Assuming you already have your balloons ready (and you will probably want to make sure they’re clear balloons), you’ll need some confetti to fill them with. You can find sequins and other materials that can be used for confetti at any craft shop. But you may want to make some home-made confetti, so you can better match the colours and style to the rest of your party decorations.

Simply get some colourful tissue paper and a funky hole punch designed to create the particular shape you desire. If punching your own confetti, punch through an entire stack of the tissue paper at once; this saves time and also makes a cleaner cut. Once you have gathered enough confetti to fill your balloons, the next step is to try and get them into the balloon itself.

Getting the Confetti into the Balloons

This is the tricky bit. It can be quite fiddly to get confetti into deflated balloons due to how small and narrow the opening is. You can do it by hand by simply poking the confetti into the balloon, but an easier way is to employ the use of a funnel.

Stick the funnel in the mouth of the deflated balloon and pour the confetti into the balloon – you may need to roll up the confetti first if the pieces are too large. Once you have the desired amount of confetti in each balloon, you can then blow them up.

Inflate Those Balloons

When it comes to inflating the balloons, you have two choices: helium or air. Which you pick will probably be dependent on the type of event you’re hosting – a child’s birthday party will probably benefit from air-blown balloons that don’t float, so they can be kicked about and played with. But most other events are better suited to helium balloons.

Helium tanks can be purchased from bottled gas suppliers such as Adams Gas. As a tip, it’s probably a good idea to blow a couple of times into the balloon before filling them with helium so that the confetti covers the insides of the balloon. Once full of helium from the tank, tie off the ends. You now have inflated balloons filled with confetti, but there’s just one last thing to do.

Generate Static

Confetti has a tendency to pool at the bottom of the balloon, which is not a good look. To get the confetti to stick to the sides, try rubbing the balloons against clothing or hair. The generated static will pull the confetti up the sides of the balloons to give them that wonderful confetti-filled effect.

At Adams Gas, we can meet all your refillable and disposable helium canisters needs.