Combining gifts and Qualatex® balloons was my challenge for the 2014 Spring Fair Stage demonstrations! It was a great opportunity for me to look at different ways to incorporate balloons with everyday items that are sold in gift stores.
We started by selecting a variety of gift products such as candles in a presentation glass container, a lovely gift for Mothers Day or Birthdays, we also found cute children's mug, an item that many gift stores sell, and a decorative boxed glass that was perfect for a milestone birthday!
So here was my challenge, how could I create something that incorporated the gift within my design to create a whole piece rather than just adding a bunch of balloons?
To achieve my goal I needed to find a 'packaging' medium, something that I could use to wrap up the gift and add my balloons to... Unless the gift was already well packaged such as the decorative boxed glass.
My favourite packaging that I used for many of my designs was floral cellophane or film roll, different name but the same product! I have used clear cellophane for many years but this time I found a fantastic range of printed cellophanes that worked so well, and coordinated with my selected Qualatex balloons!
This is what I used:
1 - Candle in a Glass Container, this could be any number of different products as long as you have something you can connect the 'Candy Connector to'.
1 - 9" Birthday Elegant Damask # 41928 - there are some fantastic 9" Microfoil ® Balloons that you can use for all occasions!
1 - Candy Connector
1 length of printed cellophane - I used a Damask print to co-ordinate with the balloon.
2 - 4" Magenta Microfoil Heart balloons.
1 length of pink organza ribbon.
You will also require a Heat Sealer and a small Hand Pump
How to make the gift:
Start by inflating and heat sealing the 9" Birthday Elegant Damask balloon, and the 2 - 4" Magenta Hearts. If you are unsure how to seat seal a balloon check out this earlier blog!
Heat Sealing Qualatex Microfoil Balloons and turn those 'little balloons' in to BIG profit earners!
Connect the 9" Balloon to the Cello Cup.
Add the Candy Connector to the top of the gift using a strong glue dot or double sided tape.
Using your heat seater, create a bag from the cellophane! You will need to turn the heat dial up to approx. 6-7. I made my bags by heat sealing one side, and the base. You might decide to fold your cellophane in half and heat seal both sides and not the base... it's your choice, just make sure that it seals the cellophane together and trim off any excess afterwards to make sure that it looks neat!
Insert the gift into the bag and secure below the Candy Connector, I used a small scrap of 160Q for this purpose. When you add your gift you can line the bag with tissue or coloured cellophane, add some metallic confetti or dried flowers, you can just keep adding value!
To finish and complete the design, take the 2 - 4" Hearts and tie as a duplet to create a bow like effect, secure this to the front of the gift, using the scrap of 160Q add some lovely organza ribbon to hide any mechanics!
Finally add the 9" Birthday Elegant Damask balloon to the Candy Connector on the top of the gift!
I believe that if you display a range of gifts with balloons such as the one shown here all ready to go in your stores, you will sell a great deal of these... people love a ready made gift that is beautifully presented!
You can add even greater value to this design by adding a beautiful helium filled balloon arrangement too, using the 18" Birthday Elegant Damask Microfoil and 18" Magenta Hearts!
Here are a few more of my gift with balloons designs that I created for the Spring Fair!
This is one of the cute children's mugs, that I used to create this lovely Giraffe gift. Once again I created a cellophane bag using a beautiful polka dot cellophane that really worked well, and simply created this lovely character that sat on top!
And, finally I created this little guy wrapped around the decorative boxed glass, using colours that complimented both the glass and this beautiful new Rachel Ellen Birthday Polka Dots & Stripes balloons.
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| 'Gift Buddy' holding Presentation Glass - design by Sue Bowler |
Thank goodness that Spring is in the air, I don't know about you but I am ready for some sunshine! A great opportunity to create some great gift designs in preparation for Mothers Day and Easter!
Happy Ballooning!
Sue
www.suebowler.com
4 comments:
I like how you have combined balloons with gifts. This is certainly something we are likely to trial with the Mothers Day range of gifts at Ideaz this year.
Thanks for the handy tips Sue and keep up the good work.
Excellent idea and than you for sharing with us, it will help a lot
I like this post the idea you are sharing is excellent it works surely. Thank you for this post. Keep it up
I have a candle-making business for a few years now and it's developed well over the past few months. I'm sure that our new erp system, microsoft dynamics played a big part in the success!
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