Sue Bowler: The Balloon Expert

Tina Giunta T ina first discovered balloons 16 years ago when she saw balloon creations in the window of her local party store.  This inspired her to make her own centrepieces for her son's Christening. From this event, Tina was asked to decorate parties for friends, and before long she found herself decorating almost every weekend! So what attracted Tina into running her own balloon business? "I only really registered a business name so that I could buy at wholesale prices. It really was just a hobby for me. But as I mixed in circles with other young families, surrounded by young mums who were very supportive and encouraging while word of mouth kept spreading, I found myself just falling into running a business." How did you learn to work with Balloons? "In the beginning, I would study my Balloon Images Magazine and the   Qualatex ®  c atalogue, and I would just try and work things out. My work was quite basic back then and I found that this ...

The fabulous Luc Bertrand, CBA, of Waw Balloons  in Vichte, Belgium, shares another one of his truly elegant designs that would work amazingly well for a New Year's celebrations. I also believe that this design would be fabulous for a store window display or decor for elegant black tie events. Luc is a master at using the Qualatex ®  Number Shapes to create elegant air-filled decor, and this beautiful design is no exception! As soon as I saw this design, I thought of the Fleur de Lys shape and saw how incredible, unique designs can be created using Luc's technique. Materials required: Choose colours to suit your occasion or event. 2 - Number Six or Number Nine Microfoil ®  Number Shape balloons. 3 -13" Taper Microfoil balloons. 1 - 27" Taper Microfoil balloon. 11 - 5" Latex balloons. 1 - 260Q to tie all the elements together. Click-Click™ Stretchy Balloon Tape ®. Heat Sealer. Hand-pump or an electric air inflator suitable for inflat...

20" Deco Bubble, with 16" White latex inside. U.S. Patent No. 6,782,675 I recently taught a class showing different ideas and techniques working with Qualatex ®  Bubble Balloons and turned to  Chris Adamo ,  CBA , of Balloons Online, in Sydney, NSW, Australia,  some weeks before I was due to teach the class to ask him what technique he used to "control" a helium-filled Bubble Balloon whilst adding vinyl and how to ensure that the text or image was centrally positioned. Chris has already showed us how to add vinyl transfer to flat foil balloons along with how to make confetti filled balloons in " Tips and Tricks of the Trade- Part 1 ," and I thought that he would be the perfect person to ask! Chris confessed that he had not worked out a specific way, but would be very happy to work on it! We discussed a few ideas and Chris went away to play! Within no time, Chris had devised the perfect solution —a cardboard jig, something that we can all make very...