Eco friendly balloon alternatives

While children love balloons and they may seem like a staple at kid’s parties, it’s clear to see that the impact greatly outweighs the benefits.

Don’t worry, there are tons of awesome alternatives to balloons (that can be even more fun)!

Create your own bubble mixture and bubble wand

Making bubbles is a great, fun alternative to balloons. And it’s super easy to do!

You can buy bubble solutions and bubble blowing kits easily but it’s just as easy to make your own. All you need to make your own bubble solution is:

• 1 tbsp Green/Eco Friendly dish detergent
• 4 tbsp Water
• 2 tbsp honey or sugar

Mix this together and let it sit for at least a few hours or overnight. You can change the amounts to your liking depending on how many bubbles you’d like to make.

If you’ve bought a bubble blowing kit, you should have extra bubble blowers ready that you can continuously reuse with your new soap bubble solution. But, if you’re doing everything from scratch that’s okay too! Because, it’s easy enough to create your own bubble wand that you can use to create bubbles of whatever size you please!

To create a bubble wand, all you need is:

• A length of string
• Two sticks



Cut the string into two pieces, one longer than the other. tie both pieces of string to the sticks, so that one string (the longer of the two), hangs lower while the other is relatively taut, forming an opening to create your bubbles.

Then you can simply dip the string in your bubble mixture and hold it up to create bubbles!

Buntings

With just some paper and string it’s also possible to make a fabulous looking bunting. They can be as simple or complex as you’d like and can be customised to match any occasion.

Simply cut out and colour paper triangles and glue them to a length of string and you have yourself a simple unique bunting like this one:

Or, try printing out templates like we did here to make a bunting with more complex shapes, like these Easter bunnies and carrots! (you can download the templates and see the steps here)

Homemade Kite Craft - From paper, string, and sticks

Still looking to take to the skies? This kite is a fabulous alternative to balloons. It’s easy enough to make and you can have fun playing with it over and over again!

All you need is paper, string, and tape.

Take a piece of paper and fold it in half as shown in the picture below. Then, fold over both sides, without creasing them, and attach them with tape so that there are two tube-like shapes formed by the paper. Just in front of where these are attached, create a small hole with a pen. Here, you can tie your string so that you can control your kite as it flies.

And it’s as simple as that, find yourself a day with good wind and you’re ready to take your kite for its first test flight!

Pinwheel

Did you know, you can make a simple pinwheel with just paper and a pushpin? It couldn’t be easier!

First, take some paper and roll or fold it until it forms a thin stick. This will act as the base for your pinwheel, where you can hold it.

Next, take a square piece of paper and draw diagonal lines from the corner towards the centre of the paper, about 3/4ths of the way to the centre. Then, cut along the lines, making sure not to cut all the way through the centre of the square. Finally, simply fold every other point from the corner to the centre of the pinwheel and join them together here with the pushpin. You can then push the pushpin through the paper stick as well and your pinwheel will be secured so you can hold it!

Feeling creative? Instead of a pushpin and paper stick, you can string a piece of string or yarn through the centre of multiple pinwheels and create a pinwheel bunting! 

Daniel is Community Manager at Babysits, a platform empowering communities around childcare by connecting families and childcare providers, providing useful childcare tips and advice, and creating resources to help children learn and have fun.