Sue Bowler: The Balloon Expert

       In the past few weeks I have decorated two birthday parties, one to celebrate a 21st Birthday and the other an almost 'surprise' 50th birthday!  I do not decorate very often any more, not because I don't want to, but it is not so easy when you have other commitments and cannot guarantee being available... but I was delighted to have the opportunity to go through the whole process once again from consultation to completion.  It's funny because when I teach a class these days I try to include a small section covering 'selling techniques', as I feel this is such a vital part of our  business, so this was my opportunity to put my words in to practice! Both of the customer enquiries came via a telephone call, both informed me that they were on a budget and that they did not want to spend too much. Firstly, I wanted to know a little about the person who's birthday it was, was there a theme, where was the party being held, f...

Last week I was thrilled to be a guest instructor working with Robbie Furman in Ireland for the first stop of his UK & Ireland BAPIA Tour. Mr & Mrs Zebra Design created by Sue Bowler CBA using Qualatex Balloons,  Premium Balloon Accessories  and Clik Clik Balloon Bond My allotted  time slot was after lunch, which was great as it gave me a few hours to play & prep working with some exciting products that had been supplied by the tours very generous sponsors before my demonstration!  After unpacking all my Qualatex balloons that I had selected to use for my demonstration it suddenly dawned on me that I did not have a heat sealer for the 9" & 14" Microfoil™ balloons that I was using in my designs... now that was a very big problem as I was using these in all but one of my designs, and therefore I needed to find a solution.

Wow, this is my 100th blog! I have enjoyed writing each and everyone of them! Some have been more challenging than others with a fair amount of research required, like this one on Pinterest!  It is really interesting when I have talked to people about Pinterest, a lot of us really do not understand how it works or more importantly, how it can work for them? So, here it goes, lets see if I can unravel the mystery behind Pinterest! What is In Pinterest's own words, 'it's a tool for collecting and organising things that you love'... a 'virtual pinboard', a place to 'pin' all the things that you like and want to look at again! For me, it's a place to gather inspiration, check out trends, see what new and hot, to show off my own work, to collect work that I like... the list is endless, but needless to say, I love it and oh yes, I forgot to say, it's pretty addictive too! In fact Pinterest is one of the fastest growing socia...

This Giraffe stands  6' Tall!  Having a  Jungle  or  Safari  party theme is very popular for all ages, my first encounter of a Safari theme party was at IBAC 15 in 2001, which was the first time that I taught at IBAC having been a competitor for the previous 2 IBACs!  I was given the task of designing animal trophy heads for the Hunters Lodge for the Thursday night Costume Party, which I have detailed a little later in this blog. The IBAC Jungle Party was designed by Glenna Kipp, CBA. Glenna and her amazing team transformed the ballroom into a magnificent jungle! I have just looked back at Balloon Images April/May/June 2002 and reminded myself of all the fun designs that were created from Sky Broom Tree's, Monkey Tree's, Safari Falls and Palm Tree Paradise... just to name a few!