DIY Decorated XL Number for Photocall

Last week we were asked to decorate a birthday party for a girl who was turning 3 years old in a beautiful house on the Catalan Costa Brava. One of the assignments was to make a different and spectacular Photocall background. In the house there was a 3 meter high white painted iron arch to decorate and the idea was to hang the giant number 3 in the middle. The idea was that it would serve as the back of the Photocall and would also welcome the guests when they arrived.

I leave you the step by step, I think it can serve you a lot as inspiration. It is not difficult but, I am not going to deceive you, it is quite a lot of work. Now yes, the result is spectacular!

I think it's perfect for decorating a wedding , birthday party or any special event, even a company event.

I promise you that in "live" it impacts and earns much more than in photos. The photos are not the best... they are taken in an unprofessional way with my phone in the garden at home. I hope you like them!

MATERIALS 

Large foam board plate from 0.5 to 1 cm. Wide. In this case it was 1.5 x 1.5 meters. and we bought it at Service station.
Cutter or very sharp blade to cut foam board
manual inflator for balloons
hot glue gun
Chalk Paint in Spray, brush or acrylic paint
18 pcs. Tissue paper Pom Poms 30 and 25 cm in diameter in pink, Mini green and white.
20 pcs. Latex balloons size 5 "small of good quality. Water balloons will not work for you.
5 sheets of tissue paper (optional)

You can find some of the materials in our Shop, I have left you the direct link on each one of them. I detail the step by step...

STEP BY STEP

1. The first and most complicated thing is to draw or trace the number or letter or word that we want to cut out on the foam board. In my case, the number must have been 1.20 cm high and it was practically impossible to draw it and make it perfect. So I'll tell you my trick... With a projector connected to the computer, I projected onto my 1.50 meter foam board. tall a perfect number three and I went over it with a pencil. How very quick and easy, with an impeccable result.

2. Once we have the image drawn, we cut it out with the help of a Cutter, being very careful not to hurt ourselves. It's a bit hard, but exerting "some" force you can perfectly.

3. We go over the cut a couple of times, being careful not to cut ourselves and then we separate our already perfectly die-cut number. As you can see... this one was huge. Since I didn't have such a big table, I worked everything on the floor of my terrace.

4. I protected the surface with newspaper and then applied spray paint to create a color base. This was going to help the finish to be perfect... I was worried that later there would be empty places without decoration between the Pom Pom and the balloon .

5. After composing and presenting the different colors and sizes of Pom Poms on the letter, I glued them one by one with the help of a hot glue gun. A piece of advice... paste them so that they are not ordered. A little bit of chaos is good and try to make the tissue paper Pom Poms a bit over the edge of your number. With this the possible imperfections of the cut will not be seen and the effect is total.

6. With all the Pom Poms already glued in place, we fill in the undecorated holes with small colored balloons inflated with the help of a manual inflator. Don't inflate them too much so they don't get a "pear" shape, making them round is always cuter.

Stick the balloons one by one with the help of the silicone gun. If the balloon is of good quality and made of firm Latex, you will be able to stick it without any problem.

Glue them in the following way: Apply a dot of hot glue on the cardboard and then press the tail of the balloon onto the hot glue. Be careful not to burn yourself! Once the part where the knot is is glued, you can apply a mini point of silicone between the balloon and the balloon to fix them. Don't worry... they won't burst!

Fill your letter with Pom Poms and small balloons until completely covered. The paint will help cover any undecorated holes and in my case I used some pleated tissue paper to fill in places without having to make mini Pom Poms.

I made this letter two days before the party. If it is true that the balloons did not have the same brightness, they can last perfectly for a couple of days, this is very comfortable in the face of stress on the day of the party. Another good thing is that Pom Poms can be recycled and reused.

Many of you have asked me on Instagram how it stood up... in this case it is leaning on a chair but on the day of the event we glued some self-adhesive hooks and with transparent fishing line we hung it to our iron arch. In case of using it as a Photocall on a wall, it can be perfectly glued with double-sided tape. They are all lightweight materials and weigh very little.

I hope it will inspire you and if any of you don't feel like it, we are in Barcelona, ​​we can decorate a number, letter or whatever you want for your next party.