Easy DIY Personalised Balloons
Personalised Balloons are a great cheap and easy way to decorate for a celebration. I like to make these to mark a special birthday, and with many of my friends kids and kids friends turning 16 this year, Ive been making quite a few. The filled balloons only cost a few pounds each, and the letters are simple cheap and easy to customise to suit any style or colour scheme.
Materials
- Foil balloon filled with helium.
- Paper
- Double sided tape
Method
First select your balloon colour. Most party stores have foil balloons in a large range of colours and shapes. I have a helium canister left over from a party a few year back, so unfilled balloons are only a few pounds. Filling with helium is not much more expensive. They last around a week, so leave it as late as possible to assemble.
The letters can be prepped in advance ready to go.
Monochrome Balloons
My friends kids were turning 16 (a boy) and 18 (a girl). To avoind any colour pitfalls, I chose monochrome. One black on white, one white on black. As well as being bang on trend, monochrome has the added advantage of being able to use standard printer paper and printer. Result!.
To make the letters, I used the font Princetown LET. It’s free, which is always a bonus!. For the black outline letters, simply print on standard white printer paper. For the white outline, I make a black text box, and changed the font to white.
Print your text and numbers as required (go mad with colour if you want). To speed up the process, I put strips of double sided tape on the whole word / name before cutting. This is much faster than adding the tape to the cut letters.
Then get cutting. A simple or sans serif font will make your life nice and easy with this. The letters will now have a double sided tape backing ready to be attached to the balloons.
When you are ready to go, peel off the backing, and attach to the balloon. We put the white letters on the black balloon and visa versa. 
Names on one side, birthday ages on the others. maybe I should have been less of a cheapskate and sprung for 2 balloons each!
Pretty Coloured Balloons
Another option, instead of the printed letters, is to use patterned paper. Scraps of gift wrap in a variety of colours work very well.
I don’t try to run these through a printer, or even go for a perfectly accurate lettering. Cut the paper to the same size rectangles.
Cut out the message your are planning in a few coordinating patterns.
Rose pink and white looked good for this.
Double tape on the back of the paper and attach to the personalised balloons. 