How to Have Your Own Water-Balloon Paint Party! from Bohom Life on Vimeo.

 

 

Originally, I had the idea of copying The Princess Diaries movie, where the mom and daughter throw darts at water-balloons and pop them to make some awesome art. It looked like a fun time and I wanted a chill way to celebrate turning 24! (Let’s be honest, I can only use laser tag for my birthday SO many times).

But then I got to thinking about it… and researching a bit… turns out it can be a bit hard to pop the balloons, and you want to have some pretty good aim with those darts! It might take awhile, but if you have the patience and the aim- then by all means, go for it! It makes some awesome art!

There were a few blogs I found that had gotten creative. One mom had made it kid friendly and instead of darts got kabob sticks for her kids to pop the balloons with. You might notice that in the video I showed the kabobs as an option to buy. I think this was a brilliant idea and would definitely be a lot of fun! While we actually did get the kabobs, as we intended to try her way, we changed our minds last minute to pop them with our sick dancing skills instead.

So here’s the how to:

Things you will need:

• Canvas. If you want to hang it up to pop with darts or kabobs, you will need something to hang this with as well. Since we decided to dance on it, we just got the good ole canvas off of amazon.com. This is the canvas I ordered and was very satisfied with. It was definitely large enough for our purposes and the material was sturdy. Our paint did bleed through- so have plastic ready to go under it if you don’t want a mess. If it’s outside then you should be fine!  We did ours in the cold, wet winter months, and therefore our garage became the art studio.

• Paint Bottles. You will want to order as many bottles as the colors you plan to use. 3 colors = 3 bottles, etc.  We used six, so this set worked out perfectly. We also we able to wash them out afterwards so we can use them next time! The reason you want these types of bottles is to make it easier to fill your balloons up. Plus, at the end you can use them to make cool designs or sign your names on the artwork!

• Paint. Of course! Wouldn’t be much of a paint party without it! After reading up on what other people used for this type of event, I also decided to go with Tempera Washable Paint. That way we knew we could get it off of ourselves, our stuff and the floor if it made a mess. We didn’t plan on washing the canvas, so we figured it’d be alright. 😛 Pick out fun colors that you want to decorate with and then fill your balloons!

• Water-balloons.  I chose these balloons not only for the fair price but because they are biodegradable. As much as I hate using plastic, this made me feel  a bit better about it. Anything that you can do to make a difference, no matter how small, do it! There are so many alternatives out there that are more environmentally friendly and price comparable, all you need to do is google. Rant, over. But truly, these balloons worked great for our purpose! The only issue I had was blowing them up to put paint in them, as filling them purely with paint proved to be an issue. If you have the technique down and strong lungs, go for it! Like most all of my friends did, I was the only one who couldn’t seem to get it to work in the end. -_- Otherwise you might want to consider using a balloon that is easier to blow up. DO NOT fill these balloons up with water and paint! Remember, the paint you got was WASHABLE and therefore will counteract with one another on the canvas.

• Optionally, you can add kabobs or darts to this list, if you wish to try popping them that way. If  you want to do as we did and use your own body to pop ‘em, then all that’s left is to get your friends together, some music and set up!

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How to set up:

• Put your paint in your bottles.

• Fill up the balloons (air+paint). I would suggest at least 50 balloons. They go fast!
• Set up the canvas. Choose a good spot where you are not scared to move around and get messy. If you are inside or on a place you do not want it to bleed through, place plastic under the canvas, or cardboard if you have enough.

• Place the balloons on one side of the canvas. Make sure they are well spaced and be aware that those towards the side may explode paint off of the canvas that way.

• Fold the part of canvas without balloons over top of the canvas with balloons. This was you  can dance on the canvas & pop the balloons with minimal mess while also painting both sides!

• Turn on the music, find a good song, grab your buddies AND finally- DANCE MONKEYS, DANCE!

             

  

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Thank you so much for checking out my blog and paint party! && Happy 2017! 🙂