While poking around for balloon decorating ideas, I found this great balloon decoration guide.  It's really an ebook you can download and store on your computer (where all of my files are kept anyway!).  It was written by a professional balloon decorator and walks you through creating balloon columns, arches, swags, and towers. 

I hadn't realized there were so many different ways to use balloons when decorating for a party.  I've done some of these, but the way I was putting them together took much longer than the directions in this book.  Helps to have tips from a pro, I suppose!

Now, the only thing I have to figure out is what color scheme to use for the sixteenth birthday party.  My son's favorite colors are pink, black, and white.  I think my husband would prefer I do something more masculine, but I'm not opposed to using that scheme.  In fact, I bet I could do it in a way that looked really cool - even for a boy's birthday party.  I'm really not hung up on the whole pink for girls and blue for boys tradition anyway - and it's his party, after all!

I love parties and am always looking for new balloon decorating tips and ideas.  With three kids and plenty of family, there's always a reason to celebrate and I like to make each event special.

To get by without spending a fortune, I use a lot of balloons.  Ever since the kids were little, I've always made it a habit to have balloons covering the ceiling when they awoke on their birthday.  Parties, however, require something a little different.  As the years have passed, I've experimented with using balloons for arches, columns, even some interesting towers I made myself.

We have a very special birthday coming up in our family, though - my oldest son's sixteenth birthday.  I'm working on a whole new decorating plan with balloons and I've found some very helpful information on the web. 

I've decided I need to know how to make a balloon arch for this upcoming party.  This video, even though they've sped it up, gave me some great tips.  First, it's obvious I'd rather do the arch with at least one helper (these two have quite the routine!).  I'd also like to add black mylar star balloons in a few places to highlight the arch.  Adding those to my list of party decorating supplies!

Fortunately, the ebook I bought on balloon decorations gave me some additional ideas for the arch.  I'm not sure if I'm going to do helium or air filled, though.  The book gives instructions for both, but I'm not sure where the party is going to be held yet, so I need to figure that part out soon.  I still have a few months but about 10 ideas to sort through still!