How to make a Quick Link Christmas Tree by Sean O'Kelly CBA

August 05, 2015

How to make a Quick Link Christmas Tree by Sean O'Kelly CBA

Christmas already! To be honest, early planning and preparation can only help your seasonal campaign. Having design ideas that you can propose to your clients is essential.

Last year I was asked to make Christmas Trees as part of the decor that I was making for a corporate Christmas party that I was decorating.

I wanted to make something a little different from the norm and so I did a little research to see what ideas I could glean from the internet!

My trees needed to be approx. 2m (6' 6") in height although they did not all need to be exactly the same. They needed to be robust and moveable to enable us to move them into position prior to the party. I also wanted to be able to add some shimmering tinsel and Christmas tree lights to bring my trees to life!

After looking at many different ideas, there was just one design that really stood out for me and that was a Quick-Link Christmas Tree made by one of my lovely ballooning friends Sean O'Kelly from Melbourne, Australia.

Rather than immediately emailing Sean and asking him if he could give me some tips and hints on how to re-create his design, I decided that it would be good for me as a Quick Link novice to try and work it out for myself. After several disastrous attempts, the first one looking much like a space rocket or torpedo (partially because I only had red Quick Links to practise with) and the second as a totally indescribable object, I decided it was a good time to give up and contact Sean (you can't say that I didn't try)!

Sean very kindly sent me his recipe, and with his permission I will share it with you in this blog!

Christmas Tree - By Sean O'Kelly, BalloonDecor, VIC, Australia - https://www.facebook.com/BalloonDecorAustralia/

This balloon Christmas Tree is designed to be enlarged or reduced in size to suit your particular requirements.

The instructions below describe the method of constructing a five-sided, green Christmas tree with red balloons trailing along the length of each edge.

Material

20 x 6" Green Quick Links Balloons™ #90198

65 x 12" Green Quick Link Balloons #65224

5 x 5" Green round balloons #43561

45 x 5" Red round balloons #43599

1 x 20 " Star for the top

Preparation

You start by creating the rings that make up the girth of the tree, each ring consists of 5 Quick Link Balloons.

Using the 6" Quick Link Balloons make two balloon rings with the balloons inflated to approx. 3.5" /9cm and 4"/11cm respectfully.
Using the 12" Quick Link Balloons make a further 7 rings with the balloons sized to 5.5"/13cm, 6"/15cm, 7"/17 cm, 7.5"/19cm, 8.25"/21 cm, 9"/ 23 cm and 9.75"/25cm.

You now need to make the five separate balloon chains that will build the height of the tree.

Staring with a 5" Red balloon inflated to 4", tie this balloon to the neck of a 12" Green Quick Link Balloon inflated to 23cm/9".
Continue the chain with a further 12" Green Quick Link Balloons, tying them end to end. The balloons need to be inflated to 21cm/8 1/4", 19cm/ 7 1/2", 17cm/6 3/4", 15cm/6", 13cm/5 1/4".
For the final part of the chain use 6" Green Quick Links inflated to 11cm/4 3/4", 9cm/3 1/2" and finally use a 5" Green inflated to 8cm/3".

Repeat this process until you have 5 balloon chains.

Now inflate the remaining 40 x 5" red balloons inflate to 8cm/ 3", and attach one balloon at each of the connection points on the rings, except the largest ring 9.75"/25cm.

Construct

Holding the red 5" balloon on the end of one of the Quick Link Balloon chains, connect this to one of the joining points on the largest balloon ring (9.75"/25cm) - this is the only ring that does not have a 5" balloon attached at each of the connection points.
Progressively moving along the chain, add each balloon ring (decreasing in size as you go) using the red balloon connectors. Be sure to remember to attach the chain to the rings from the outside and do not attempt to attach them from the inside of the ring.
Repeat the process with the remaining four chains.
You should now have a five-sided cone shaped cylinder.

Finishing Touches

Either helium or air-fill the foil shapes star and position on the top of the tree. Attach a balloon weight to the foil shape star with fishing line and drop through the centre of the structure for stability.

The tree is now presentable as a stand-alone piece for room decor. For extra effect you can drape tinsel or ribbons around the tree fixing it at each of the red balloon connectors.

Lights can be added on the tree or for a more subtle effect a single light can be place inside the tree allowing the glow from the light to escape from between the balloons.

A further option is to add weight to the base using sand weights that will give the tree extra stability.

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I loved working with Sean's recipe, here are our Christmas Trees before we moved them into their final positions.

Qualatex Quick-Link Christmas Tree's - Sue Bowler CBA

Here are a few more Christmas Trees that are featured on the Qualatex website each one is made with different types of Qualatex balloons.

Design by Larene Taylor of PJ's Balloons & Flowers in Roswell, GA, USA

This Christmas tree has been made using the Qualatex Palm Fronds!

Original design by David de Bustos, Aizea Espectaculos, Bilbao, Spain.
This is a very cute design that would be perfect for a children's Christmas party.