A six-year-old Boy who was feared to be trapped in a flyaway home-made balloon inflatable was found safe and well in his attic yesterday. But how do you make a helium foil balloon?

Foil balloons are made using BoPET film. Bopet is created using the Dupony company trademarked product mylar (a clear material made from polyester resin) or Melinex (a similar product from an alternative company) and laminating it to aluminum foil. This creates a material less resistance to damage and less permeable to gases. Foil Balloons are commonly called "Mylar Balloons" when they are actually Bopet-Film Balloons.

Create a design and cut all the parts to you design out of paper 50% bigger than the intended balloon size. (We've added several spaceship designs at the bottom of this page).

 

Decide where the inflation point will be and create a neck 1" wide and 5" long to where a helium connection can fill the balloon.

 

 

 

Unroll the Bopet film onto a table top inside up. Place another sheet of film on top this time with the outside on top. Trace around your paper designs. Remove the paper design and heat-seal the designed edges together with an iron making sure a sheet of wax paper is positioned in-between the film and the iron.

THe balloon design can now be cut out with a hot-knife.

For pictures of a small design visit balloonkits 

 

SpaceShip designs and ideas

 

 

 

 

Bopet is available from