Under the sea party decorations are great for proms, summer birthday parties, and any time you want to dive under the water without getting wet.
Doing an ocean themed party doesn’t have to be difficult. If you can attach round balloons together and follow some simple directions for shaping twisting balloons into seaweed and bubbles than you can create your own “sea world”.
This theme is all about suggestion and the use of color, which is why it doesn’t really require a lot of experience. I’ve laid out a plan that will guide you through making the basics yourself and using Mylar ocean themed balloons for extra flair.
You’ll need helium only for the Mylar balloons but you can also take any Mylar balloons you buy to any party supply store and they’ll inflate them for you. This might be easier than renting or buying the appropriate tank and nozzle for use with foil balloons.
This video provides the ideas for the Under the Sea party decorations. This balloon artist has included some complex shapes like the octopus but this is where the Mylar balloons can be used. For the basic design, we can copy the use of the round latex balloons and the twisting balloons to create the ocean floor.
Watch the video and then see the instructions and ideas that follow:
Clicking any of the images below will take you to the
online store where you can find each balloon.
Round Latex Balloons for Ocean Floor
Getting the balloons all the same size is required in many balloon decorations but in the Under the Sea party floor, random sizes and variety are the key and that’s much easier to accomplish.
Take two of any color round balloons used for the floor, inflate them and tie them together. Create another pair of balloons in the same fashion and twist the two pairs together in the middle. Continue creating pairs of balloons, mixing colors and sizes, and attaching the pairs to the original set to extend the floor both in height and length.
Twisting Balloons for Seaweed, Coral and Bubbles
The 260 twisting balloons are used to make the coral, seaweed and bubbles. The use of clear balloons for the bubbles is a really neat touch but finding clear twisting balloons can be difficult. This package at Amazon includes a number of clear balloons: Qualatex Entertainer Balloons.
To make the coral, use pink and red twisting balloons and twist bubbles at various points in the balloons. Twist multiple ones together to form branches of coral off of a main cluster.
To make seaweed, inflate a green twisting balloon, leaving about an inch of balloon un-inflated at the end. Measure up from the tied off end about the width of your hand and pump-squeeze the balloon until you’ve formed a permanent indentation in the balloon. Measure another hand’s width along the balloon and repeat the pump squeeze process. Repeat making indentations in the twisting balloon until you reach the end. This should form squiggly balloons that mimic seaweed.
To make the bubbles, inflate a clear twisting balloon, leaving two inches un-inflated at the end. Twist one inch bubbles along the entire length of the balloon. Next, go back and twist parts of the bubble chain together to build a pile of bubbles.
Attach the coral, seaweed and bubbles to the base floor by twisting sections of each around a cluster of round balloons used in the sea floor.
Mylar Under the Sea Balloons
One other balloon decoration you might use with your Under the Sea Party decorations can be found here:
Fun Ocean Balloon Centerpieces
Under the Sea party decorations are very forgiving and allow for lots of creativity because the ocean itself is not uniform. Scale the ideas to fill your own party space, use the colors you envision for your own ocean creation and have fun with these decorations.
June 1, 2010: Special Note to the High Seas Expedition VBS folks working on their special ocean decorating themes the next few weeks – Good luck with your plans! I noticed some extra visits from the forum and stopped by to see what was up. What a cool idea! Just got a pic from my mom showing some cookies she made for my niece’s birthday party and thought of you guys. Also adding some more how-to videos as I find them. 🙂