DIY Concrete Balloon Container

 

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Happy first Wednesday of May! I am so glad that you are here. I have to admit that when Terrie, our challenge master from Decorate And More With Tip, gave us the challenge of making something out of concrete my mind went blank. However, after hitting Pinterest and finding this DIY Concrete Balloon Container I knew I had to make one!

Welcome to May’s DIY Challenge.

If you are coming here from Gail’s at Purple Hues and Me, welcome, I’m so happy that you are here.

When you are finished here be sure and visit all of the other DIY Challenge participants.

I’ll be sure and list them all at the bottom so that it will be easy for you to find them!

Supplies

Concrete

Balloons,

Gloves

Acrylic Paint and Paint brushes

Gauze ( shown above is an ACE bandage, ignore that!) cut into 6″ to 8 ” strips

A bucket or bowl to mix the concrete in.

Water

Step 1

If you are using concrete you may be able to skip this step.

However, I used Quick-crete and it has tiny little rocks in it.

Big shout out to The Hubs for being my hand model.

It’s hard to take pictures when you need both hands.

Sift the concrete to remove any stones.

Then mix the concrete and water to a consistency of pancake batter.

Be sure to use a bucket or bowl that you don’t mind messing up!

Step 2

Blow up your balloon to the desired size.

I used 12″ balloons and let me tell you my concrete container is huge.

WAY bigger than I imagined.

Then dip your gauze strips into the concrete and lay them across your balloon.

Keep repeating this step until you have as much or as little of the balloon covered as you would like.

Let this dry overnight.

Sorry, I swore I took pictures of this part, but apparently not.

Step 3

Mix another batch of concrete and water together in the same consistency as in Step 2.

Using your hand or a putty knife add another layer of concrete to the  sphere you created yesterday.

Again, let dry over night.

Step 4

Now you are ready to pop the ballon.

Remove all balloon pieces from inside of your sphere.

If you look closely at the bottom of the sphere you can see where I missed putting a second layer on a couple of areas.

No worries.

I simply cut that section off using a craft knife.

It’s already meant to be irregular in shape, so this just added to that look.

This is what my sphere looked like when I was done cleaning up all of the edges and removing the balloon from the inside.

Note: I had a few places that layer one and two hadn’t adhered to each other. I simply glued the two together. Also, you may have some rough edges. I got rid of those using sandpaper.

Step 5

Once you have cleaned up your concrete container, it’s time to paint it.

I started on the inside and painted it gold.

Make sure that you paint the jagged edges of the sphere gold also.

Step 6

Once the inside paint has dried, paint the outside the color of your choice.

You may have to do this step in two separate sessions – painting the top and then the bottom.

I avoided putting any pressure on the edges of the container since it probably hasn’t completely cured.

To paint the bottom, I used an old pitcher, covered it in a towel and placed the inside of the sphere on top of the pitcher.

Then painted the bottom of my container.

Once the paint dried, this is how my DIY concrete balloon container turned out!

Definitely not as smooth and sleek as my inspiration, but I really love it!

I used mine to host a candle – it gives off such a pretty warm glow at night.

However, I’ve seen people make water gardens and use it as a flower pot.

A very versatile piece for sure!

Now, please join me in visiting  Denise at Hootshack and all of the other DIY Challenge participants.

I can’t wait to see what they have made!

Decorate and More with Tip

Purple Hues and Me

Patina and Paint

Hootshack

 Until Next time….

Tammy

Be Sure To Pin It For Later!