This past weekend we hosted a gender neutral baby shower for our friend, Meg! Normally I craft up a storm for these types of events, but since my office and craft supplies are all packed up for the upstairs part of the renovation, I was in charge of some balloons, a game and activity. We all know I had to craft something for the party.. so I decided to try my hand at putting vinyl on balloons like I’ve seen on some blogs!

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Personalized Balloons with Vinyl

What you’ll need:

• Balloons!
• Vinyl
• Cricut Maker (or other cutting machine)
• Weeder tool
• Transfer tape
• Scraper

This post on Something Borrowed was my guide on what steps to take and what I needed to use. I also read it to see if it was as easy as the other vinyl projects I’ve done – spoiler alert: it is.

First step: Create your design in Design Space. I went simple with just “Baby Johnson” in a mix of fonts. I centered the 2 lines of text, attached them and resized them to fit my balloon without it wrapping around the side too much.

Cut your design on vinyl and weed away the excess. Apply the transfer tape on top and cut away the excess transfer tape and backing. Also cut your design in multiple pieces if you’re nervous about applying a bigger design to the balloon and accommodating the curved edge.

Remove the backing and place the design on your balloon. Lightly press down on the design so it’s adhered to the balloon. Slowly (veryyy slowly) remove the transfer tape from the balloon and your design.

Repeat for as many balloons and designs as you have! I personalized 4 balloons that went in the 4 bunches throughout the baby shower. Once I had my first successful balloon under my belt, the other 3 were quick to finish.

The last thing I did was swap out the regular ribbon for the leaf ribbon I’ve come to love. I think it just adds a cute touch to regular balloons, esp paired with your design!

Lessons Learned

• Cut the transfer tape close to your design: The more transfer tape, the more that sticks to your balloon and has to be removed (and is an opportunity to pop the balloon).
• Use Cricut brand transfer tape: I had some Oracle transfer tape that I used the first time around when I was applying a larger version of the design to a big latex balloon. It was almost too sticky and although I went slow, the balloon popped when I was removing the tape. I used my Cricut brand transfer tape for the other 4 balloons and didn’t have an issue.
• Remove the transfer tape SUPER slowly: I usually get in a groove and can now remove transfer tape quickly and with my eyes shut. Not the case on a curved balloon that is waiting to pop. Go slower than you think you should to make sure it’s coming off okay and your balloon stays inflated!
• Apply vinyl close to party time: Latex balloons deflate over time, so while I applied the vinyl the night before our morning shower, I still had to make some repairs (ie – Remove and reapply the vinyl) the morning of where the balloons deflated a little bit.

I couldn’t have been happier with the balloons and being able to craft at least a little something for the party! Now that I can do this, I’ll have to add personalization every time a balloon is included!