These Fall Flower Ice Balls are made with water and autumn color flowers. They are perfect for keeping your apple cider chilled at your next fall party.
Flower ice balls are my favorite way to keep drinks cool for parties.
And based on how viral my first tutorial went I’m going to guess that you all love it too!!
While you can of course just put flowers in a vase and fill a container with regular ice, I found this way to be so much more fun, and pretty too!
Plus regular ice is nowhere near as big as these ice balls so these keep your drinks (or food) cool for SO MUCH LONGER!!
We live in Tennessee (where it’s crazy hot and humid) and I used them at an outside party we had this summer.
I had them outside around 7 pm and at 12 pm there was still some ice in it!
While some people thought it wouldn’t look nice when it melts, it’s actually really pretty as the flowers then float in the water.
And since I’ve done this several times I thought I’d share some additional tips and notes to help you when you’re making them for your next party.
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Tips & Notes:
1. Farm Tool vs Balloon Industry Tool
This particular tool is only advertised to be used for filling balloons. I don’t recommend you use it for anything but filling balloons. If you are a farmer or grew up on a farm you’ll know what I mean. And yes, I know the original purpose of the tool. 😂 But the balloon industry has a very different use for it.
2. How to make clear Ice
Boiled distilled water makes the ice more clear, but I needed water pressure to fill these balloons. I did use boiled distilled water in the silicone mold, but it still froze in multiple directions which caused impurities to be scattered throughout the ice causing it to be less clear.
3. Biodegradable Balloons
The balloons I used are made from 100% natural latex (not plastic), they are biodegradable and compostable in 6 weeks and are made with food-grade ink. Oh, and the bags that they came in are compostable too as they are made from 100% corn starch. You can find the balloons here.
4. Round Ice Balls
If there are any odd edges (like from the top of the balloon where the knot was), you can run just that part under the water to melt it away and round it off. For a more round ice ball you may want to opt for silicone molds, but they are often much smaller than balloons which means they will melt faster.
5. Removing Air Bubbles
Some people have noted they struggle with air bubbles in their ice balls. One easy trick to remove a bunch of air bubbles is to bounce/jiggle the balloon after you fill it with water. This should help the bubbles to move off of the flower and up to the top of the balloon. Slowly let some of the water be released from the balloon, this will push out excess air, and then quickly tie the balloon.
6. Freezing Time
The more ice balls you make the longer it will take to freeze. Also, the warmth (even with room temperature water) can cause things in your freezer to soften if you do a lot of them.
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7. Silicone Molds Alternative
Silicone molds are a great alternative, but you will either need a lot of silicone molds or will need to make them slowly over several days to a week. Note: Not all silicone molds work the same, I tried out two before finding one that worked well. (Click here to read more and click here to find the type of silicone mold that worked best for me.
8. Not Edible Nor Food Safe
These are not to be placed in drinks or consumed. As seen in the video and pictures, these are to be used on the outside of the bottles to keep the bottles chilled.
9. Clear vs Regular Container (less flower ice needed)
While a clear container is so pretty, especially with these Waterproof Lights in it, it does mean you have to buy more flowers to make more flower ice balls to fill the whole tub up.
If you use a regular container (seen above) you can fill the base with regular ice, or regular ice balls, and just top it with the flower ice balls.
10. Removing Frost
After cutting open the ballon it helps to run it under cold water to help remove some of the frost to make it more clear.
11. How to Make 3 Holes for the Drinks in the Ice Balls (so the ice doesn’t fill in the holes when you pull the drink out)
Place large reusable plastic cups (as big as the glass bottles) in the center of your container, duck tape them together (so they won’t move around), and then place the ice balls around them.
Pour a little bit of cold water over the whole thing, and then place the whole container (with the ice balls and plastic cups still in place) back in the freezer.
You could do this a day in advance (like the morning of your party), and then every few hours, poor ice cold water over it, this way it will be a nice solid chunk of ice that shouldn’t come apart as easily when people take the bottles out.
Before your party begins, remove the container of ice balls from the freezer, fill each cup/thermos with warm water so that it will unstick/unthaw from the ice balls (being careful not to let the warm water spill on the ice balls), then remove the cups and replace them with the chilled glass bottles for your guests to serve themselves.
This way the ice balls are all stuck together, and there will be natural holes for the drink bottles.
12. Melting Timeline (you won’t believe it!)
Melting times will vary, at Christmas, we left them out and there was still some ice even after 24 hours. You can read more about the melting timeline and melting variables here.
I hope these tips and tricks help you as you make these for your next fall party!
What is your favorite fall drink?
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Materials (click item to shop):
Fall Flowers Flowers
Water/Hose
Instructions:
1. First, cut the tops of the flowers off of all of the stems.
2. Next, use the balloon opener to open a balloon and push a flower head (or multiple smaller flowers) down into the balloon.
3. Repeat this process until you have filled all of your balloons (or as many as you need) with flowers.
4. Equally fill the balloons with water (I did this outside) and tie them in a knot. While distilled boiled water will make clearer ice, I needed water pressure to fill these balloons.
5. Freeze the flower water balloons overnight or several days depending on the number of balloons (see notes above).
6. Carefully use a sharp knife or scissors to remove the balloons from the flower ice balls.
7. Finally, place the Fall Flower Ice Balls with your drinks or food to keep them chilled.
Enjoy!
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I hope this post helps you as you prepare for a fall party!
If you are looking for more home decor inspiration you can find many more home posts, inspiration, and tutorials by clicking here.
And if you use this post to help you decorate your home, be sure to share a picture and tag @DomesticallyBlissful on Instagram so that we can all see your beautiful home and so that I can share your photo on my stories!
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What is your favorite fall drink?
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With love, Giusti
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
John 6:29 NKJV
