"Hello, little one! - Fun and Appealing Baby Decor Ideas!

Balloon decorations can add a festive and whimsical touch to any celebration. Here are some fun balloon decoration ideas for a new baby, Baby Shower, Gender Reveal or any baby related occasion including Baby's First Birthday! 

Design by Sue Bowler

Create a beautiful balloon Arch or Rainbow Arch using balloons in different shades of pastel colours or in the theme of the baby's gender (if known). You can place the arch at the entrance or use it as a backdrop for a photo booth.

Oh baby, you’re cute!

This sweet design is simply perfect for that little button of a baby!

Designer name: Eve Antonello, CBA, Pioneer Balloon Company, Wichita, KS, USA

This fabulous design by Eve incorporates the 'Baby Boy Garland' adding in all the "little touches" along the base of the design. To find out how to make this design and others, check out the Happy Hour with Cam & Eve video below.

41" Baby Boy Garland
#17766

Baby designs from Happy Hour with Cam & Eve

Did you know that all these pretty in pink baby shower photos and marketing materials are available from Qualatex.com? These are from a photoshoot that I did with Qualatex a few years ago, there are some great shots that would be perfect for your social media marketing! Click HERE or visit: https://pioneerballooncompany.widencollective.com/c/hnceyt3g

Baby Shower Decor by Sue Bowler

Here is something a little different. I created this 'Baby Hoop' design for a display earlier this year. It also looks great with an air-filled foil balloon connected to the centre of the hoop! The balloons are all double-stuffed to create these pastel shades that work perfectly with the Unicorn foil balloon.

Baby Hoop Design by Sue Bowler CBA

Who does not adore an Animal Buddy! Using a Qualatex shape balloon you can create many different animals including giraffes, pandas, monkeys and bears just to name a few! For the 'Floppy Eared Bunny' below, I inserted a 16" white latex balloons inside a 'Welcome Baby Boho Rainbow' Bubble balloon, for me, it makes the design on the Bubble balloon stand out.

Bunny Design by Sue Bowler

Or how about this Bear! The body of this bear is perfect for personalisation! If you would like to learn how to make this adorable design just click HERE, or follow this link: https://theverybestballoonblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/baby-bear-air-filled-delivery-design.html

Baby Bear Design by Sue Bowler

And finally, If you would like to learn how To create a hot air balloon using a 3' balloon covered with 5" balloons like the one shown below, follow the instructions provided by Eve Antonello, CBA in the video below. This technique is perfect for organic hot air balloons as well! Simply size the 5” balloons randomly to achieve the organic look.

Hot Air Balloon by Eve Antonello

Did you know?  More babies are born in July, August and September, so this is a great time of year to be promoting baby designs and decor.

If creating social media assets is not your strong point, there are some fantastic prepared tiles available for you to use... and they are FREE! To view these click HERE or follow this link: https://us.qualatex.com/en-us/inspiration/marketing-materials/

Here are a few examples of some of the assets available for download, some are photos whilst others are tiles that can be personalised with your own message or company details using Canva or anything similar!

Thank you for reading this post! I hope that it has given you a little inspiration?

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me @suebowler

 

 

Baby Bear Air-Filled Delivery Design with Step-by-Step Video Instructions, Product List and Job Cost Form

Baby Bear Design by Sue Bowler
www.suebowler.com

As many of you have seen, I created a Baby Bear display at the recent Spring Fair. This new 31" Baby Bear Microfoil™ balloon is so cute and appealing, and perfect to recreate this charming 'Balloon Buddy' design for New Babies, Birthdays and even Mother's Day displays!

Material List

4 x 7" Chrome Rose Gold

1 x 18" Rose Gold Round Foil Balloon

2 x 16" Blush (1 x body 1 x sand weight)

6 x 5" Pearl Peach

6 x 5" Pink (the pink goes inside the Pearl Peach)

2 x 350Q Blush

1 x 260Q for tying 

1 x 31" Baby Bear Special Shape Microfoil 

Stretchy Balloon Tape

I have also added a prepared Job Cost Form to this post: all you need to do is add in the values and you will be able to quickly calculate a profitable selling price! 

To learn how to create this design, check out Sue's video below.

Sue's Window Display at Spring Fair 2023

I recently made a Panda Bear version, which is also very cute! 

Panda Bear with Pastel Rainbow 

I hope that you enjoy making these and maybe even adding your own personal touch to the design - I look forward to seeing them! 

Happy Ballooning!

Sue Bowler

www.suebowler.com

Follow me @suebowler

Learn How to Make a Flat Pack Column or Arch with Step-by-Step Video included

 

With its elegant lines, the Flat-Pack technique is very different from the usual cluster method that is often used to make Columns and Arches. I enjoy using this style for Columns and Arches and have used it a number of times for different events. 

If you have never tried it, let me show you how!  

Here are two Columns that I created for an awards ceremony. Incorporating the 9" Stars was easy and very effective; I simply added them where the front facing balloon would usually go.

Here is a Halloween column design that I made recently to display the fabulous Qualatex® 50" Glitzy & Glam Bat! The whole design is air-filled, which makes it even more appealing.

Halloween Bat Column by Sue Bowler, CBA.

To use this technique to create an Arch, you simply change the size of the balloon that follows the inner line to create the curve. To create the Arch below, I inflated the outer balloons to 4.5" and the inner balloons to 3.5 inches, and the small balloons are all inflated to 2.5".

I hope that you enjoy trying out this technique if it is something new to you! 

Happy Ballooning! 

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me @suebowler

🎀 𝐵𝒶𝒷𝒾𝑒𝓈, 𝐵𝒶𝒷𝒾𝑒𝓈, 𝐵𝒶𝒷𝒾𝑒𝓈 🎀 - Beautiful Baby Balloon Decor

September brings many exciting new things: the start of Autumn, longer nights and cooler days, schools and colleges starting their new academic year, and, perhaps most special of all, one of the most popular months for having a baby! Statistically, there are more babies born in September than any other month... mostly in northern hemisphere countries! 

With that in mind, there is no better time to start a '𝐵𝒶𝒷𝓎 𝑀𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒽' marketing campaign and use this month to promote a range of adorable baby balloon decor for Baby Showers and New Baby arrivals on websites and social media channels!  

Recently, Cam Woody, CBA, and Eve Antonella, CBA, shared some super cute baby designs on Tuesday's Happy Hour With Cam And Eve, a weekly 'LIVE' show that can be viewed at 1pm CST every Tuesday on Mr Q's Facebook Page

To learn how to make these delightful designs by Cam & Eve check out the video!

 🐥  🎀  🐥  🎀  🐥 

Need a little more inspiration? Here are some more fabulous designs to excite you and your customers! 

Wrapped Baby Boy - Marvin Ohmstedt, CBA, Ballons-Bremen.de, Bremen, Germany.

Celebrate a new bundle of joy with this cute gift design from Marvin Ohmstedt, CBA. Featuring the stylish Baby Boy Blue Stripes Microfoil® in both 18" (#88001) and 9" (#88489), and new 7" Chrome® Gold latex (#85111), this fully air-filled design will underscore any new baby celebration perfectly.

Did you know that, QBN members & CBA's can download instruction sheets for many of the designs featured on Qualatex.com - to download this design click HERE

                                                                  🐥  🎀  🐥  🎀  🐥 

If you are looking to make an eye-catching window display, how about making one of these beautiful Baby Moon designs! I first made this design for a window display for Pioneer Europe at the Spring Fair 2018. This proved to be an exceptionally,   popular design with visitors to the show. I loved working with this fabulous colour combination of Pastel Caribbean Blue (Caribbean Blue double-stuffed inside White) and the little 'pops' of Chrome Gold and confetti-filled balloons.

🅱🅰🅱🆈 🅼🅾🅾🅽

Baby Moon by Sue Bowler, CBA.

If you would like to learn how to re-create this design with full step-by-step instructions check out the video's below. 

Part 1. How to make the frame 

Part 2. How to add the balloons, sizings and finishing touches.

 🐥  🎀  🐥  🎀  🐥 

I absolutely love this beautiful Baby Hoop design by Esty Landman of Balance Balloons in Israel, and you can see that it uses a very similar colour palette to my own Baby Moon design. I adore all the little details and how they all work so beautifully together. Esty is a very talented balloon artist, I highly recommend that you take a peek at her other balloon work.

Qualatex^® Double Bubbles Balloons are double the fun! This adorable "Baby Blue Bear" inside a clear Bubble Balloon and with coordinating details is a definite winner! 

Design by Sue Bowler
24" Baby Blue Bear #29486
24" Baby Pink Bear #29488

Using the same "Baby Blue Bear" Double Bubble, this design uses the Bear that has been carefully removed from the Balloon!

 🐥  🎀  🐥  🎀  🐥 

I  love the vibrancy of this design made by Tina Giunta, CBA, of Shivoo Balloons in Melbourne, Australia.
I suppose we all expect baby designs to be pastel tones and this design is bright, bold and beautiful! I expect that's why I love it so much, it stands out from the norm! 

                                                             

                                              🐥  🎀  🐥  🎀  🐥 

𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

Making designs that incorporate a little balloon character is always very appealing. The characters do not need to be complicated, but the addition of little face is a  finishing touch that always makes the design stand out. Don't forget, Qualatex have printed "Face" balloons if you are not confident to make your own! 

Top Left - 5" Happy/Sad Baby Face
Top Right - 5" Sleeping Pacifier Baby Face
Bottom Left - 6" QuickLink Happy/Sad Baby Face 
Bottom Right - 6" QuickLink Sleeping Pacifier Baby Face

Baby Boy Design by Sue Bowler
18" Rachel Ellen - Baby Stroller #50253

 

🐥  🎀  🐥  🎀  🐥 

Baby Girl & Moon Column by Sue Bowler
35" Crescent Moon - 
Rose Gold #57857 
Metallic Gold #36530
Silver #36531
Pearl Pink 9" Heart #54593
Pearl Pink 4" Heart #27164

🐥  🎀  🐥  🎀  🐥 

Beautiful Baby Girl Design by Zahraa Jawad of Forever Balloons Boutique in Beirut, Lebanon.

22" Baby Girl Pink & Confetti Dots #10035
7" Chrome Gold #85111
11" Chrome Gold #58271

                                                                    🐥  🎀  🐥  🎀  🐥 

𝒫𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝐵𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓃𝓈

Personalised balloons are a fabulous addition to any balloon or design. Adding a babies name or a special message makes a balloon delivery that is much more special and unique.

Adorable Baby Delivery by Zahraa Jawad of Forever Balloons Boutique.
Zahraa combines a personalised balloon with a little baby character to make a complete design... and it's all air-filled too! 

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Balloon design by Jacqueline Pettit of Tiffany's Balloons in Chelmsford, Essex, UK.
Jacqueline always makes beautiful personalised balloons. I always love the fonts that she chooses and her beautiful finishing touches. 
24" Deco Bubble - Baby Footprints #49459

Zahraa finds the perfect solution to add personalisation to a message balloon. She simply adds a 9" Star Microfoil™️ balloon that not only allows her to personalise her design, it also compliments the message balloon perfectly.
Yep I'm a Boy is no longer available, however it can be easily substituted for another baby Microfoil balloon... there are many lovely designs! 

I hope that you have found some inspiration from all the beautiful designs featured in this blog post! A huge thank you to Cam, Eve, Marvin, Esty, Tina, Jacqueline and Zahraa for sharing their beautiful work with The Very Best Balloon Blog.

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me on Instagram @suebowler

Part 2. Baby Moon Design - Step-by-Step Tutorial - How to Add the Balloons and Finishing Touches

In Part 1 of this two-part video tutorial, I demonstrate how to create the perfect frame for this super cute "Baby Moon" design. For a direct link to this video, click HERE.

Here is a reminder of the materials and equipment that you will need to make the frame:

Frame Material and Equipment List:

• 1 x 3m length - 6mm or 1/4" Aluminium Rod 
• Pipe or Bolt Cutters
• Gaffa or Duct Tape
• Pipe Bender if you have one but it's not essential
• NOT (Lamp) Base - this is an inexpensive IKEA (lamp) product that many balloon professionals use to support designs.
• NOT (Lamp) Pole x 1 (If you don't have access to an IKEA NOT Base and Pole you will need to find a good, similar alternative.) 
• White Floral Quick Drying Spray Paint 
• String or ribbon to measure
• Circular Template - such as a hoop

Balloon Material List - you can change the balloon colours to suit your client's needs.

• 18" Baby Girl Pink Stripes Microfoil™️ Balloon - #88004 
• 11" White - only a few for the cloud base
• 5"  Pink or Rose 
• 5"  Pearl Pink - optional
• 5"  White 
• 5"  Pearl White - optional, but it does give a slightly different textural look to the plain white
• 5"  Diamond Clear - approximately 10
• 7"  Chrome Gold - approximately 10
• 260Q Chrome Gold - approximately 15
• 260Q Pink - 4-5

Other items:

• Gold Metallic Confetti
• Ultra Hi-Float - I use the NEW Mini Bottle - 148ml (5oz) as the nozzle is perfect for using with 5" and 260Q balloons
• Premium Twin-Air Sizer II Balloon Inflator - this will help you naturally size your balloons using the "10th's of a second" timer adjustment. While you can use any inflator to make this design, I use the Twin-Air as it makes the sizing of the balloons very easy! 
• Castration Pliers - to stretch open the 5" balloons

You may also want to use a few Uglu Dashes when connecting the foil balloon and pink ribbon for a nice finishing touch! 

Hi-Float - 148ml (5oz)

Premium Twin-Air Sizer II

Castration Pliers

I hope that you have enjoyed learning how to make this beautiful baby design, and I wish you every success making and selling this design in the future! 

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me on Instagram @suebowler

Part 1. Baby Moon Design - Step-by-Step Tutorial - How to Make the Frame

The frame is probably the most important part of any frame based design. Get it right, and your design will look amazing! But getting wrong - out of proportion, or the wrong shape, can lead to you being disappointed with the end result.

Frame Material and Equipment List:

• 1 x 3m length - 6mm or 1/4" Aluminium Rod 
• Pipe or Bolt Cutters
• Gaffa or Duct Tape
• Pipe Bender if you have one but it's not essential
• NOT (Lamp) Base - this is an inexpensive IKEA (lamp) product that many balloon professionals use to support designs.
• NOT (Lamp) Pole x 1 (If you don't have access to an IKEA NOT Base and Pole you will need to find a good, similar alternative.) 
• White Floral Quick Drying Spray Paint 
• String or ribbon to measure
• Circular Template - such as a hoop

Balloon Material List:

Although I am not adding the balloons in Part1. here is a list of the balloons and accessories that I will be using so that you can get them prepared for when your frame is ready! 

• 18" Baby Girl Pink Stripes Microfoil Balloon
• 11" White - only a few for the cloud base
• 5"  Pink or Rose 
• 5"  Pearl Pink - optional
• 5"  White 
• 5"  Pearl White - optional, but it does give a slightly different textural look to the plain white
• 5"  Diamond Clear - approximately 10
• 7"  Chrome Gold - approximately 10
• 260Q Chrome Gold - approximately 15
• 260Q Pink - 4-5 

All the balloons that I am using for this design are Qualatex - www.Qualatex.com

Gold Confetti - ideally a small square cut
Hi-Float - I like to use the new 148ml (5oz) bottle as the nozzle is perfect for 5" and 260Q
Castration Pliers - ideal 'Stretching Tool' for balloons - available through some balloon wholesalers, Amazon, and farming supply companies.

I will be using a Premium Twin-Air Sizer to inflate the balloons, as it will allow me to use the "10th's of a seconds" timer adjustment to give me the perfect graduated sized balloons. Using a hand pump is not so easy to get the precision for this design.

Part 2 is now available! Just click on the link below! https://theverybestballoonblog.blogspot.com/2020/06/part-2-baby-moon-design-step-by-step.html

Happy Ballooning! 


Sue
www.suebowler.com
Follow me on Instagram @suebowler

How to Design a Window Display From Concept to Creation - With Bonus Tips and Tricks Videos

Each year, I have the privilege to design the window displays for the Qualatex trade stand at Spring Fair, NEC, Birmingham, U.K. It truly is a job that I love doing, although challenging, I find that I can really allow my creative juices to flow!

Baby Boy Window Display by Sue Bowler. CBA.

Designing a window display is definitely worth pre-planning. Otherwise, you can end up filling a space without really knowing what you are trying to achieve. My role at Spring Fair is to showcase a range of new Qualatex balloon designs in a way that makes them look exciting and striking. 

Probably one of my favourite displays this year was the "Baby" window. I love the NEW "Baby Stripes" balloons; the beautiful pastels with gold and white are so elegant and completely on-trend!

18" "Baby Boy Blue Stripes"
also available in 9".

18" "Baby Girl Pink Stripes"
also available in 9".

Designing my displays

Sometimes I find the process quite easy, but not always, and so planning is especially essential for me. I start by creating a design board. I want to be sure that the ideas I imagined will be functional as well as pretty. I often use this same technique when I am proposing a design to a client, and have found that it really helps them to get a good understanding of what they will get. Below is the design/mood board that I made when working on this window. It helped me see how the balloon would look with a crescent moon shape and garlands. Although I did not re-create exactly what I had originally designed, I really did not deviate too far - that's pretty unusual! 

The ability to be able to download images directly from the Qualatex website in a png format (clear background) has made designing so much easier. I simply download all the balloons that I want to feature and then play around building shapes. If you are working on Columns, Arches or balloon walls, you can use Chris Adamo's fabulous design tool that will help you to produce good look design images every time! Designing the crescent moon was fairly simple. I import shapes into a Word or Pages document and build the shape that I am looking to make, add circles and fill them with the colours that I want to use. 

Making the design

The display was created from two main elements - the crescent moon and the air-filled garlands. Using air-filled balloons in window displays is the key to longevity. The garlands are extremely long lasting and could be easily stored and re-used for a future display. The crescent moon has a limited life but to ensure that it looked its best for the entire show, I double-stuff all the latex balloons or treat with hi-float.

The crescent moon frame was made from a length of 6mm aluminium rod bend into a crescent moon shape. I actually used one of my hoops from another display as a template to ensure that I had a good curve. I secured the frame to a NOT base, which worked perfectly for this design. If you look at the finished design you will note that the base is white. I like to spray my bases with a white, quick-drying floral paint when I am creating pastel and light-coloured designs. 

Colour

To achieve the beautiful pastel blue that has been used for the Baby Boy Blue Stripes balloon, I double-stuffed Caribbean Blue with either White or Pearl White on top. Using both whites and mixing them into the design gave a subtle change in texture, some of the balloons looked a little more shiny whilst others had a subtle softness.

I also added a few under-inflated 11" Chrome Gold and some Gold Confetti-filled balloons too! If you are wondering what the tiny gold balloons are, they are a mix of small gold baubles and the inflated tips of 260Q Gold Chrome balloons! Excepting the 11" Chrome Gold balloons and the 260Q bubbles, all the other balloons are 5" inflated to different sizes.

Air-Filled Garlands

Making the garlands takes a little time, but the effort is truly worth it! My garlands were made from 4" Metallic Gold Stars, 9" & 18" "Baby Boy Blue Stripe" balloons. These were all air-filled and heat sealed as required. Each balloon was connected together using a very fine monofilament line. The finishing touch was to decorate each balloon with a tiny hand-made satin ribbon bow - it's the finishing touches that makes the difference!

The Display

The window space is quite small, so to make the best of the space, I use a layering technique to ensure that each element stands out in its own right. The long garland with the 18" balloon at the base was positioned towards the front of the window. The crescent moon was centred and slightly angled, and the shorter garland was positioned towards the back of the window. This gave the display a visual balance as well as the opportunity to see each of the elements very clearly for every position. The gold glitter balloons added an elegant twist to the design and reflected the confetti that is printed on the balloons.

Tips and Tricks

Here are two very short video clips that will show you how to make the mini 260Q Bubbles and how to make 5" Confetti-Filled balloons using Hi-Float, both of these techniques I used for the crescent moon design. 

Getting both window and in-store displays right are critical for the success of a business. They are the opportunity to show your brand and to promote products or seasonal themes. 


Happy Ballooning!


Sue
www.suebowler.com
#suebowler