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I spotted these adorable balloon topiaries at Emily W's Audrey's Art Birthday Party and had to know how she made them. She kindly put this tutorial together, so a big thank you to you, Emily!

I saw the How Does She tutorial for a balloon wreath. It was adorable and figured it would be the perfect addition to my bright, art party decor. I made the wreath then started planning out the rest of the decor and realized I didn't have anywhere to hang it. I loved the balloons and wanted to use them, so I came up with making them in a topiary to use on each end of the food table. Here is how you make it:

Supplies

• One 6" Terracotta pot or some other container
• One Styrofoam block (cut to fit inside the container)
• One 5" Styrofoam ball
• One 18" wooden dowel (mine was longer and I had my husband cut it down to this size)
• Two packs of greening pins. You really use about 1.5 packs but it's better to have more and not need them than be short.
• 2 packs of small (around 2.25") multi colored balloons (around 72 qty)
• 2 packs of larger (around 3") multi colored balloons (around 72 qty)
• 1 pack of pipe cleaners cut in half
• 1 pack of shredded tissue paper
• Pencil

Next it's time to add the balloons to the styrofoam ball. I tied one of the smaller balloons around the greening pin (yellow balloon) to help hide it. Behind the yellow balloon I placed one or two of the larger balloons. Push the greening pin into the ball. Do this over and over until the entire ball is covered in balloons.

To add extra texture cut the pipe cleaners in half. Wrap one end around the greening pin to hide the edge. Wrap the other end around a pencil or paintbrush. Pull the pipe cleaner off and stretch it out into the coil shape. Add these sparingly around the ball. You can also add balloons behind the pipe cleaner like in step 3. Continue covering the entire ball with balloons and pipe cleaners.

10. For added decoration tie some ribbon around the dowel at the base of the styrofoam ball.

11. To cover your styrofoam block add the shredded tissue on top of it and around the dowel.

12. Congratulations, you are done! These topiaries make great additions to any table because you can change them up by using different colored balloons to match a theme or holiday, paint the dowel and use interesting ribbons, or change up the containers. You can also just make the ball and hang them from a chandelier or the ceiling using coordinating ribbon. Have fun!

Emily, thank you. What an ingenious idea!

To learn more about Emily and her company, Magnolia Creative Co., which sells party and event invitations, stationery items, and hand painted ceramic and canvas gifts, take a look at her website and Etsy shop.

(Do you have a DIY project from one of your parties that you’d like to share?  Please email me at jillian@catchmyparty.com.  I’d love to show it off!)