Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A Bunch of Hot Air...

Yarn Balloons....A Lot of Hot Air -Take 1
Emilee here, so I saw this and instantly fell in LOVE with this idea... 

The Original Pin

So on craft night, Wednesdays at my house, The Mr. Chips and I gathered the materials, (part of the problem with this is that unless you read THE WHOLE first blog page mentioned, you will NEVER find the tutorial link, which we didn't). So we got together the Elmer's School Glue, just the small one, yarn in various colors, balloons of varying sizes, and laid down a trash bag underneath so we didn't drip on the floor. We dipped the yarn in the glue, wrapped a TON around the balloon, and let it dry. We even sprayed the whole thing with the spray Elmer's Craft Glue (which is REALLY awesome by the way). And here is what we got...

The Pinstrosity



     Needless to say this was not quite what we were hoping for. If you read the directions, which apparently we don't at our house...in order for this to work, you cut the yarn in about three foot intervals, place it in 1:1 equal proportions glue and water, then wrap it randomly around the balloon. When we did it, we just ran the yarn through the glue, then wrapped it around the balloon, one dipped, one wrapped. This was REALLY hard to do because everything was tightly connected to another piece on the balloon and so it would move around and eventually fall off, these two balloons probably took us a good hour. The other problem is that the blog specifically says to use thin yarn. It might also help to go for smaller balloon sizes. The spray glue is awesome for other projects, but this one just weighed it down, and made the yarn white. Another pointer, this is a great outside project, very messy, very sticky...our kitchen floor never stood a chance, even with the trash bag :(

All in all a great idea, but not as simple as it seems, this one takes a bit of an artistic, and patient hand. The Mr. Chips said he would love to try this again, only modified for take two, we will let you know how it goes!



                                             -Emilee



24 comments:

  1. This had me in hysterics. Was laughing so hard I couldnt speak. Thanks for sharing

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  2. BAHAHAHAHA!! I am loving this blog! The reality of Pinterest comes to life. : )

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  3. Fabric stiffener 'stiffy" brand works great for this! They turn out beautiful:) I do suggest that you use embroidery floss.Just a fyi make sure you really soak the floss first then put it on the ballon or it will stick to the ballon and break it.Good luck:)

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  4. I actually used to do this type project as a kid and it worked. Not sure of the exact materials because it was a while ago, but there is a way.

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  5. My mom actually made us all Easter baskets this way. They turned out great, not sure how she did it!

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  6. The pin i tried called for liquid starch soaked yarn.....it was a huge fail! So i went and bought a can of the extra stiff spray starch, worked much better!

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  7. Didn't work so well for me either... :(

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  8. I can't stop laughing at this particular one. I've seen this one so many times on Pinterest and I always think....I bet it isn't as easy as the instructions make it out to be.

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  9. I did about 8 of these and only about 5 came out nice. Still not like the pic, but looked cool enough for a party. Messy, for sure. I wore rubber gloves and did it in my basement with a big tarp. Took a few days to completely dry too. I did find that using shorter strands worked better.

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  10. Try using sugar water instead! I used those on mine, let them dry over night and they turned out solid as a rock. Use crochet thread, as well. I beleive I used size 3?

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    1. This works really great. My mom did an Easter basket this way and it is rock solid too. She still pulls it out every year so I guess sugar and water can stand the test of time as well!

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  11. I made something similar in elementary school but we used a balloon, thread, and starch. We let dipped the wrapped balloon in starch and let it dry completely, popped the balloon, then used some spray glue to add glitter. My Mum still hangs it each year on the Christmas tree and it has held it's form (as long as you store it correctly). Some of the other kids added layers of color by using a different color thread for each 'layer'.

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  12. I did this with my Mom one night, along with the yarn bowl. 100% cotton yarn is a must, the acrylic doesn't hold the glue as well. It was stll very messy and tedious but they turned out great once they dried...nearly two days later.

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  13. We used this tutorial: http://www.wednesdaycustomdesign.com/blog/2010/11/7/messiest-merriest-and-whirliest-diy-balls.html
    We did a bunch of these for our wedding and started with the same result.
    But we found some good solutions: 100% cotton yarn and a lot of corn starch did the job. Also we used and a bobbin to make the wrapping easier an faster. (Roll the yarn on a stick and grease every layer in the glue mix)

    I have blogpost about it, but its in german...
    http://thediycrowd.blogspot.de/2012/08/netzball-wolken.html

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  14. Spray starch! I have a pin that explains it. Havnt tried it myself YET!

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  15. i made much much larger versions of these in a sculpture class in college - fabric stiffener is the way i got mine to hold up.

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  16. 100% natural plant fiber is a must for this project, size doesn't matter. The yarn has to be treated more like paper mache. Another words, in this case more glue will not help, only hinder. Use any paper mache recipe, dip the yard in real good so it soaks it up. Then take off ALL of the excess you can, I pull it through my fingers. Also the length needs to be no more then 12" long. The size of the balloon does not matter. Put the balloon on a stand and do the top crossing them in layers to make sure they stay on top. Once there is enough of them to to create a VERY light a frame work, then turn the balloon a little. Continue around the balloon, but make sure you let it dry a little between turns so it's dry enough that it won't fall off when you turn it. Once you get far enough down the balloon let it dry and then only then, do you hang it up and finish the bottom of it. People have the same problem you did with putting paper around a balloon when doing paper mache - too sticky and that just kills the rest of the project. Short cuts here will not work, as is the problem in a lot of the pinterest pins. Hope this helps.

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  17. I did these at Easter with embroidery floss and StaFlo (sp?) we got at Walmart. It worked perfectly!! We etched away at the extra hardened starch in the cracks with a toothpick (very tedious and messy). I got impatient so they weren't perfect (there were a few places with a yellowish buildup from too much starch) but everyone loved them. It's a time consuming project (which is okay if you store them safely between seasons) but unfortunately before I could with moving ad a clumsy fiancé they all got smashed into a ball of floss and I will be spending a few more countless hours making more of these next Easter

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  18. This was my take on this: http://ahankeringfor.blogspot.com/2012/03/easter-eggs.html

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  19. You need to do it with thread, in layers. Letting each layer dray. My sister did it around water baloons when i was little and it worked perfectly. Then she put each one over a light on a string of christmas lights.

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  20. Would it work better with marble latex balloons or something of that type? They're extra thick because the pattern is made by dipping them in more latex and the ones we used for my brothers birthday party lasted for over a month. They're tough to blow up though.

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  21. Yeah, I've failed on this twice! When my balloons deflated, they took the string with them! I read somewhere you should spray the balloon with cooking oil so the glue doesn't stick to it. I obviously didn't try that though!

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