Highlights From My Amazing Trip To The Qualatex Event Shanghai

Teaching balloon art in a new country is always very exciting, and my recent trip to China was no exception!

On July 18th and 19th, China saw its very first Qualatex Event. Held in Shanghai at the Hyatt Palace, in Shanghai's Hongqiao Business District.

Qualatex Event 2018, Shanghai, China

Wang and Ophelia of QingLing, Shanghai.

The two-day event was organised and co-hosted by Pioneer Balloon Company, represented by Soo Chin Goo, Regional Sales & Education Manager E/SE Asia, and Qualatex distributor, Qingling, represented by Wang and Ophelia.

Soo Chin Goo of Pioneer Balloon Company

Day one was a fun-filled, action-packed day with the theme "Hot Summer." Lily Tan, Jeff Wong, CBA, Tingyu Wong, and myself, taught our designs to an expectant and excited group of delegates. Each instructor offered their uniquely different styles and techniques, which made the day very interesting and extremely informative for the delegates.

Here is a little feedback from some of the delegates: “Miss Lily’s happy and fun way of teaching, letting us deeply understand that the balloon can not only make people fame and fortune, but they can also make people so cute and happy. She teaches us not to be constrained by the techniques and to pay attention to details, details decide on the success or failure of the work. It also tells us that the work represents itself, so we must take each and every one of our works seriously."

Jeff Wong, CBA.

 "I was very impressed with Jeff's class. The process of shaping the aluminum will change the way we make frames, especially the heart shape. It can be bent at the same time to make the secret of symmetry on both sides very useful!" 

Tingyu Wong.

"Teacher A Yu mainly talked about how to make the irregular 'organic' balloon chain look better, and the importance of design sense. He also spoke about the color matching skills of the design. Teacher A Yu is a big, energetic boy, who had a good sense of design and aesthetics and interacts well with the students, making people feel very comforatble."

Hands-on with Tingyu

Day one concluded with a wonderfully relaxed and happy evening of fabulous food and entertainment organised for the delegates, instructors, and hosts at a neighbouring hotel. When we arrived, we were greeted with some of the stunning decor that had been made during the classes earlier that day, plus some further decor created by Lily and Tingyu.

The buffet dinner was a tour around the globe with so many choices of beautiful food! I was in seafood heaven! 

After dinner, a Mystery Box competition had been arranged without any prior notice to the delegates! There were eight slots available with two people per team. The theme echoed the same theme as the party - Hot Summer! Each team was presented with a closed box of balloon products, which they could create their own unique design from during the allocated thirty minutes. The competition was very enthusiastic, and the improvisation was very exciting. 











After much deliberation, it was unanimously decided by the instructors that Joey Gao and Song Ye of Balloon Kingdom in Shenyan, China,were the Mystery Box winners!  

Joey Gao and Song Ye of Balloon Kingdom - winners of the Mystery Box competition.

The evening was a great opportunity for the delegates to relax, socialise, and network with other balloon artists across China.

Day two was my turn to share some of my design ideas and techniques with our fabulous group of delegates. The day was filled with new baby and wedding decor, too, both subjects that I love to teach. 

Organic style wedding arches and hearts! 

Flamingo Birthday Decor by Sue Bowler, CBA

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with such a fabulous group of very talented delegates. I was very excited and impressed to see a selection of their everyday work - balloons and elegant balloon decor are certainly thriving in China! 

Finally, congratulations on the successful conclusion of China's first Qualatex Event. 

"From this exchange meeting, you can feel the thriving development of China's new generation of balloon artists! Let us work together to create the success of China's 'Balloon Pioneers' with the quality of Qualatex and contribute to the better life of the society!" - Soo Chin Goo, Pioneer Balloon Company.

I truly enjoyed my trip to Shanghai. I have been blessed that balloons have given me the opportunity to visit some incredible places around the world. Meeting, spending time, and working with Lily, Jeff, and Tingyu was a highlight of my trip, all very warm natured, generous, and talented instructors. I built so many wonderful memories with Soo Chin, Ophelia, and Wang, our amazing hosts! And finally, the awesome delegates who made my trip to Shanghai very memorable - thank you to all!

I was so impressed with the work of some of our delegates from China that I will be featuring a selection of their designs and the artists who made them on next week's Very Best Balloon Blog! 


Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com

From Traditional to Contemporary Jungle Party Decor Ideas.

Black & White African Party Theme.
Designer unknown 

When it comes to designing a theme party, this event designer has ticked many boxes for me! I love how the balloon stylist has created this fabulous African-themed children's party using black and white balloons, with helium balloons on the ceiling and a few air-filled balloons scattered on the floor mixed in with paper honeycomb balls. I love the addition of the Qualatex^® Black & White SuperAgate^® balloons mixed within the clusters that sit neatly below the awesome 3' Giant confetti-filled balloons! Some might say that this is not very representative of a toddler's second birthday. However, it's not uncommon for a parent to throw a trendy, lavish children's party, especially for first and second birthdays.  Unfortunately having discovered this photo on Pinterest, I cannot find the original designers name. If you know who created this beautiful decor, please let me know as I would love to give them full credit.

When it comes to creating fabulous decor, here is another wonderful designer - Tope Abulude, CBA, of Balloon Inspirations Design Studio, Brentwood, UK. Tope recently designed and decorated this stunning "Tropical Jungle"-themed party for a baby's first birthday in Lagos, Nigeria. 

Tope really nailed it with this fabulous organic style entrance decor!
The purpose of entrance decor is to set the scene and welcome guests to the party.
This entrance looks simply stunning, exciting, and very memorable!

Once inside the venue, Tope continues to thrill the guests with his fabulous designs. 















Tope blends all the shades of green Qualatex Quick Link and round balloons to create great variety and contrast with his fabulous trees.











The organic ceiling filled with greenery and lighting looks awesome!





Here are some more fabulous examples of "Jungle Party" ideas. 

I love this fantastic entrance Arch created by M & M Balloon Co. of Seattle, U.S.A. The monkeys and the giraffe add so much fun and life to this fabulous design. This design will create a fun and exciting welcome for party guests and a great photo opportunity, too!

Lily Tan, CBA, of Myairtitude, in Singapore, shows her wonderful design skills creating another awesome jungle-themed entrance design. I love how Lily builds much of the detail into the base of her Arches. The design flows throughout the whole Arch, making it exciting and fun to look at.

When it comes to adding animals to our jungle designs, we have a great selection of Qualatex animal shape balloon heads to work with!

39" "Ellie the Elephant" #16987 — #16136 (pkgd.)

30" "Tickled Tiger" #31041 — #16189 (pkgd.)
14" Air-filled #41808


35" "Mischievous Monkey" #40194 — #16097 (pkgd.)
14" Air-Filled #41793

32" "Zany Zebra" #35404 — #16166 (pkgd.)
14" Air-Filled #41805


32" "Jolly Giraffe" #31035 — #16095 (pkgd.)
14" Air-Filled #41790

29" "Lovable Lion" #16860 — #16154 (pkgd.)






Have you checked out the Inspiration page at Qualatex.com? It is perfect when you are looking for ideas and inspiration! There are articles, videos, bouquets, and decor ideas, too! The search feature is awesome; simply search either the bouquet or decor page using a search term and filter your results by occasion and theme. You can download the design image for future reference, and if you are a QBN member, you will find that many of the designs have downloadable recipes!


Here are a few of the design ideas that I found in the new inspiration pages. The Mischievous Monkey is super cute and is always a number one favourite when made into these lovely little balloon sculptures. For QBN members, there is a downloadable recipe once you log into the member's area on Qualatex.com.

I recently showed this design in a post about Balloon Arches, but it deserves to be shown again! This is another fantastic use of the small animal heads. Keith Stirman, CBA, and Dominic Cassidy, CBA, of All Things Fun in Country Durham, U.K., have created a design that is fun and full of excitement and visual energy. It's not a huge Arch, but it would be perfect for a children's party and, once again, would make an ideal photo opportunity.

Lily Tan has used both sizes of the Zany Zebra balloon to create these fabulous centrepiece designs. She also uses the Zebra Stripes from the 5" Safari Assortment balloons #87144 to complement her design. 











Mike Harris, CBA, of Every Occasion Balloon Artists Ltd. in Rhyl, U.K., puts a contemporary twist on the jungle theme with this Quick Link Zebra Stripes Balloon Wall. The addition of the Starpoint balloons adds a new dimension to this style of wall.

I love to design theme parties and the jungle theme is a great one to work with. It can be traditional, or as both Tope and Mike have shown, they can have a more contemporary look, too!

To conclude this post, I am adding a couple of fun animal design recipes that you could use for this party theme. You can download these by visiting the RECIPE section at the top of this blog page.

Tiger Design by Sue Bowler, CBA.

For more great ideas on this theme, check out an early post - Animal Magic - some great balloon designs with an animal theme.

Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com




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1st Birthday Celebrations the Bigger Picture Part 2

In the first part of this blog, 1st Birthday Celebrations Part 1, we looked at how different cultures celebrate a baby's first birthday and some wonderful design ideas suitable for this occasion. In part 2, we will explore 1st birthdays a little further.

In Images magazine April/May/June 2007, there was the fantastic article, ‟Big Fun with First Birthdays.” This feature talks about the Korean tradition known a ‟dol.” Dol is Korean term used for baby's first birthday. In the distant past, a baby's chance for survival was very low. So when a child reached the age of one, it was considered an important milestone for the baby and parents. The whole village used to celebrate a baby's first birthday, sharing food and wishing for long life and fortune for the baby.

The Korean dol has since become less ceremonious and more about keeping the tradition itself alive.

Dol made its American debut in Southern California, home to the largest concentration of people of Korean descent outside of the Korean peninsula.

Hayeon Kim, CBA, owner of Kiki Events and partner company Color Tree Events, in Irvine, California, U.S.A. specialises in dol-style 1st birthday parties.

‟I often decorate for a girl’s dol using a princess theme, and for the boy’s, I use animal and jungle themes.”

Because the guest list for these parties can number anywhere from 50 to 150, and in some cases even more. “Providing quality work for your customer is the best form of marketing for this type of business,” said Hayeon. “Guests see your work, and they want the same for their babies, so make sure to provide your client with several of your business cards because party guests will ask for them.”

The focal point of a dol often includes a long table draped with cloth and flanked by two balloon Columns. Sometimes an Arch stands behind the table, or some simple balloon designs are rigged to the wall to create a backdrop. 

The space in front of the table is often decorated with more balloon work and so is the table top, if space permits. It is important to remember that because balloons are recommended for children ages 8 and up, you should always remind your client of their responsibility to watch small children and make sure that they don’t get their hands on an uninflated balloon or a scrap.

Lily Tan, CBA, of My Airtitude in Singapore, shows us how we can transform a room with beautiful balloon decor.  Lily has filled this room with lots of beautiful designs that when placed together creates this fantastic 1st birthday scene.

Derek Wong, CBA, of Twisted Inflations in Ontario, Canda, created this beautiful number one sculpture.

“This sculpture was made for a little Asian girl who turned one, and the parents picked the elephants because their daughter loves elephants. The three elephants representing their family – a father, mother and a little girl elephant at the top. According to the parent who placed the order, they wanted to have a special memory that will last forever for their first daughter on her first birthday, and they think my balloon creations are very special and creative so they asked me to make them this.”

I feel very fortunate being the author of this wonderful industry blog. I have the opportunity to meet through the magnificent "interweb," fabulous and very generous balloon artists who are very happy and willing to share their knowledge, passion, and expertise. I am forever thankful and grateful. I would like to thank Hayeon, Lily, and Derek for their invaluable contributions.

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.comSaveSave

Party decor fit for a princess!

 

Pretty dresses, crowns, magical wands, fairies, and even frogs! There are lots of fun ideas for us to use to create a magical "princess party".

Anne McGovern, CBA, of Elegant Balloons in New York, U.S.A. captures the essence of this theme perfectly with her princess, centrepiece designs using the 18" ‟Princess Tiara” Microfoil^® balloon, dressed with tulle & feathers!

I designed this fun princess castle entrance backdrop for a photo shoot to promote the Rachel Ellen - Birthday Princess range of balloons and partyware. 

The colours are vibrant and bold. For this decor, I used Caribbean Blue, Pink, and Wild Berry as these colours complimented the balloon and party range perfectly! 

I have also made a version of the lovely ‟Birthday Princess” that stands approximately 4ft tall (1.2m).

Step-By-Step GEO Blossom® Flower People.

Since writing my blog, The GEO™ Balloon celebrates 25 years! I promised that I would create a step-by-step recipe on how to make these adorable Flower People.

GEO Flower People by Sue Bowler CBA

They are extremely simple to make, and would make a great addition to a balloon arrangement that would certainly put a smile on anyone's face!

This short video clip will give you all the information that you need to make one of these little characters. All you need to do is add your own little bit of personality to each of your characters. For my designs, I used a selection of facial stickers that are part of a set that Lily Tan CBA has produced; these worked perfectly for me. You could make your own stickers if you have a vinyl cutting machine or you could simply draw on a face using markers pens such as Sharpies or edding marker pens. I have written two blogs,'Drawing a face on a balloon' and 'Drawing on Balloons and bring your designs to life'. Both these blogs are a great help for those of you who are new to drawing on to balloons!

Turning a hobby into a career - Lily Tan's amazing journey!

Lily Tan - 'Giraffe and Me'

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Lily as a 'Very Best Balloon Blog' guest artist!

If like me you are in awe of Lily's amazing designs you may be surprised that she started out working with balloons as a hobby, but I will let Lily tell you her story...

Lily Tan is a renowned artist, widely recognised for her innovation and excellence in Balloon Sculpting. She is a locally self-groomed artist, whose accidental hobby has evolved into her passion for balloon art today.

After completing her 3-year Diploma for Fine Arts course at Nanyang Academy of Fine Art (NAFA) Singapore in 1990, Lily worked as an Assistant Art Director in an Ad Agency. Her job in the Agency had allowed her to explore art beyond imagination.

Drawing on Balloons... and bring your designs to life!

Drawing on balloons, some great tips from two industry experts!

I draw very simple faces on my character designs, but I must say that I am in awe of those who have a natural talent when it comes to drawing on balloons!

So I invited two of our industries very talented balloon artists Yolanda Verberk of Yollie Balloons, Belgium and Lily Tan of My Airtitude, Singapore, and asked them both if they would kindly share some of their top tips when it comes to drawing on balloon's.

Tiger by Yolanda Verberk

Hi there!

I’m  proud to have been asked to write down a few tips and tricks in 'The Very Best Balloon Blog' about drawing on balloons.  I hope I’ll inspire you to try drawing more details on balloon sculptures.

I sincerely hope I can show you that you can do so much more with a balloonface than just 2 black rounds for the eyes.    

First I’ll introduce myself, and you’ll learn it’s not a coincidence that I love drawing on balloons…  

Yolanda Verberk- 'Yollie'

My name is Yolanda Verberk, most twisters know me as “Yollie”. I’ve been twisting professionally  for about 8 years now.  I also do facepaint and together with my sister I participate in bodypaint competitions throughout the world.

In 2012 we may even call ourselves the Dutch champions!

I love painting on faces and bodies, so why not try pimping my balloons in the same way!? After treating myself to a set of 30 Sharpies in different colours (and believe me, it’s hell to get your hands on those when you live in Holland or Belgium!!)  I started experimenting.  In 2009 I was the winner of the Iron Latex Man competition in Mol, Belgium. It’s there where I learned that you could dazzle people with art-work on balloons. Of course it’s important to twist a fabulous balloon sculpture, but the drawing makes the sculpture complete! 

For my drawings I use Sharpies, Edding paintmarkers, deodorant (!), tissues and my fingers.

Sharpie Pens

Most pictures speak for themselves, but I’ll try to give you some explanation about how I work. But first of all, my most important tip:

Take good care of your tools!!

 How to do that:

- Always use the lightest colour first, than the darker ones and finally you use your black Sharpie

Otherwise your light colours absorb the darker ones and they will all turn to some sort of grey-looking colour and lose their brightness.

- Use your Sharpie markers for drawing on balloons only! Do not let your kids use them to fill in their colouring pages… that way your Sharpies will last a long long time, as a balloon does not absorb the ink.

- Always use your Edding paint marker  last. If the paint’s not entirely dry, you’ll ruin your Sharpie by trying to draw something over the wet paint.

Edding Paint Marker - White 

- Always put the caps back on the markers as soon as possible!

Although a lot of twisters don’t like drawing on balloons, most twisters feel the need to draw eyes on their sculpture. So I’ll start by explaining how to draw beautiful eyes. These eyes help you to bring your balloonanimal or balloondoll to life.

First draw the blue (or whatever colour you prefer, try making a match with the colour(s) of your balloon!) outline. Then draw a black inner circle and immediatly draw an extra circle within. Add two extra circles.

Make sure that the three small circles are big enough. The white circles in the eyes, the twinkles shouldn’t be too small!!  

Then you fill in the remaining space with a black Sharpie. And finally you partially outline the blue circle. Not with a neat, straight line, but like in the last drawing.

 If your eyes are drawn on a coloured balloon, and not on a white one, you can draw the twinkles with a white Edding paintmarker afterwards.

When using a black balloon, draw the entire eye with a white Edding marker first. Be SURE your paint is totally dry, before you start drawing with your Sharpies.

More tips and tricks:

- A bottle of deodorant and a tissue are of great help when you make a mistake! Spray some deodorant on a tissue and wipe the wrong bit off!

- In order to draw a nice blush on the cheeks, rapidly draw a red smudge or circle on the balloon. Even more rapidly fade the paint with your finger, in order to get a nice blush

- Try adding some freckles, eyelashes, eyebrows to your balloonface, it’ll liven things up!

- Want to add a nice detail to your balloon? But this detail is too difficult of too small to make out of a balloon? Try drawing it! Like a baby’s pacifier for instance!

-

Well… there’s a lot more I’dd like to tell you, but I’m sure this will enough to get you started!

Thanks for reading my tips and tricks and enjoy looking at my balloonsculptures! 

Hope to see lots of your nicely drawn faces on balloons soon!

Yollie

Here are a few of Yollie's beautiful Balloon Sculptures!

Ferrari by Yollie

Tess by Yollie

Ape by Yollie

Clowns by Yollie

'Dirk' - by Yollie

Drill Instructor - by Yollie

Freddie by Yollie

Giraffe by Yollie

Hampster - by Yollie

Witch - by Yollie

Turkey - by Yollie

Maternity Gift - by Yollie

Large Princess - by Yollie

by Yollie

Snail by Yollie

Snow White by Yollie

Dachshund by Yollie

Twins! by Yollie

Butterfly- by Yollie

Lily Tan - My Airtitude

Lily Tan

Lily Says....

"I usually use Sharpie Fine Point Permanent Marker or Pilot Wytebord Marker to draw faces cause its work well for drawing the faces on the balloons. It contains quick drying, water resistant ink that permanently marks most surfaces including glass, metal, photos, foil and most ... They come in many colours.
Again I always like to do some research before I create some new things... and it's always good to see Other Great Works for different artist. Do practice and practice cause practice makes perfect."

Wow! A huge thank you to both Yollie and Lily who's contributions have made a great blog! I think that I need to go away and practice practice practice, as I think all these designs are amazing, with such beautiful pen work... what do you think?

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.com