Did You Know that There Are Elves At The World Balloon Convention?

There are so many "Wow!" moments at WBC, and of course, one of those is the incredible decor designed by a line-up of extremely talented balloon artists from around the world! WBC 2018 was no exception, and I can honestly say that there were many "Wow!" moments.

Welcome Event Decor
Designer Stuart Davies, CBA.
Photograph by Nicci Rene.

I would like to start by acknowledging the designers who created all the fabulous decor.

Lobby Decor Designer - Lily Tan, Singapore.

Welcome Event Decor Designer - Stuart Davies, CBA, UK.

Costume Party Event Decor Designer -Federico Onida, CBA, Italy.

Grand Gala Event Decor Designer - Olga Baranova, CBA, Russia.

Grand Gala After Party Event Decor Designer - Chris Adamo, CBA, Australia.

You might be surprised to learn that this post is not about the designers. It is about the amazing crew of people who tirelessly work to make sure that each of the designer's dreams are realised, and that the decor looks as fabulous as it should.

As I have mentioned before, there are many reasons why people attend WBC, and one of those is to be part of the awesome production team — for me, the "Elves of WBC!"  One of my favourite childhood books was a very old story called, "The Elves and the Shoemaker." This story is about a poor shoemaker who receives much-needed help from elves, hence the reason I have given this wonderful group of people the name "elves"! 

The Production Crew Team. 

First-Time WBC Production Crew Members:

Sara and Mike Harris, both CBAs of For Every Occasion in Rhyl, UK., have attended every WBC in varying capacities: as delegates, competitors, and also as a sponsor. This would be the first time that they worked as part of the production crew.

Mike Harris, CBA.

The production crew are all unsung heroes, the elves of WBC who make dreams reality. Do you agree with that statement? 

"Absolutely, 100%. I knew from the other events I had attended that the amazing event decor had to be built, but until this year, I did not realise who did it or how much hard work was involved. Most days started for the team at either 7 or 7:30 a.m. and would go on until up to midnight. One day we worked until 3:00 a.m. 

It was great to work as part of this fantastic team who all have their own strengths and specialities. They accepted us straight into the team from day one, and I know I have made some great friends for life," Sara added "I always knew these ‘elves’ worked hard, but can honestly say I really had no idea just how hard! The hours they put in are immense."

Sara Harris, CBA.

What do you think you gained from being part of the crew?

"Apart from a great bunch of new friends, I think the experience of working as part of a large crew on gigantic projects. It was also reassuring to see that other artists work in the same way that we do on projects. Not only from a design point of view, but also the way the team worked on the designs." Sara also felt that they gained more experience working on big decor.

What were your WBC 2018 highlights?

"Working with a hard-working, great fun team. Seeing each of the designs come to life and the final night awards dinner when we knew we had finished and could finally relax." For Sara, "I loved the beach party, but my highlight was the welcome decor - absolutely loved it!"

Was there anything that you did not enjoy about your role?  "There was nothing that we did not enjoy. It is hard work, long hours, but very rewarding to see the results. In conclusion, WBC 2018 was a whirlwind of thousands of balloons, more than I have ever worked with on one project. We worked hard. We didn’t have time to play hard, but we made some great friends for life. I only hope we get to do it all again sometime in the future. I would like to say a big thank you to LaDonna Belcher and her team for welcoming us in, and trusting us as part of this first-class crew." 

Barry Revell, CBA, of Lightitup Balloons in Perth, Australia, also joined the production crew for the first time this year.

Barry Revell, CBA.

Barry's first WBC was in 2016 in New Orleans, and although a delegate, he found himself volunteering to help the production crew with inflating balloons and knew that this would be the perfect WBC role for him.










The production crew are all unsung heroes, the elves of WBC who make dreams reality. Do you agree with that statement?  

"100%, yes! Without the production crews help, it would be so hard for the designers to achieve their designs and the mass numbers of balloons that the decor requires."

What do you think that you gained from being part of the crew? 

"I learned many new skills from working on the large scale decor projects. I also enjoyed working together with others crew members. It was great that we were able to combine our skills. I also gained many more balloon artist friends from around the world."

What were your WBC 2018 highlights?

"There were many highlights. Seeing how the designers became overcome with emotion once their event decor had been turned from a design on paper into reality. Also, working alongside nineteen other amazing and talented balloon artists."

What did you least enjoy about your role? "That the whole experience finished too quickly."

LaDonna Belcher, CBA with Barry Revell and
Olga Samoilova, CBA.

This year's fabulous production team members were:
Greg Arrigoni, Garrett Gruberman, Mark Toomey, Sue Boone, Ines Lambert, Cheryl Skoric, Alexandra Ventura, Bonnie Fisher, Lisa Talip, Chase Nelson, Evan Nelson, Tara Silva, Debi Leidel, Cindy Rasmusson, Ray Wilson, Mike Harris, Sara Harris, Barry Revell, Sandy Pressley, Fathi Boheme, and JR (Huvaldo) Magnia. 
This amazing team was led by the fabulous LaDonna Belcher, CBA, who was awarded the Golden Light Award at this years WBC in honour of the wonderful late Linda Bruce. LaDonna had this to say about her team. "They work with a pure heart as if each event was their very own, and we are all in one accord to help the designer achieve their dream."  

A huge thank you to Mike, Sara, and Barry for sharing their WBC first-time experience working on the production crew team!

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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It's a Boy - how to make a 'balloon baby' fit for a Prince!

In celebration of the new baby Prince of Cambridge, I would like to share this recipe that I created to compliment the Rachel Ellen Baby Boy balloon launched earlier this year!

What a great opportunity to install a new window display to celebrate this wonderful occasion!

It's a Boy! Design created by Sue Bowler CBA

Balloon Distortion Techniques Part 2

Making those amazing faces!

For the past few years, I have seen more and more detailed faces using the distortion technique!

The detail in Masako Normura, CBA of FuwaFuwa, Japan, sculpture, was awesome, we all studied the Geisha face with huge admiration! Masako's sculpture came second in the Large balloon sculpture category at the World Balloon Convention 2010.

Masako created another great large sculpture a WBC 2012, she used many different distortion techniques in this sculpture.

Masako Nomura, CBA

Today, many balloon artists are using a similar technique in their everyday work...

Here are some amazing ghosts heads made by PartyFiesta Shop, by positioning several balloons inside a bigger balloon these amazing faces can be created!

Partyfiesta Shop, CBA, Italy

This Witch was created by Mike Harris, CBA of For Every Occasion, the face detail is so good! Mike used a Nikoloon Tool to make the face.

Witch by Mike Harris CBA

Witches Face by Mike Harris CBA

Witches Face by Mike Harris CBA

Many of you may know Niko Fric, CBA. Niko has designed a tool called the Nikoloon Tool which allows you to do many fantastic things with latex balloons.

Nikoloon Tool

He has a great website www.nikoloon.com filled with information, pictures and step by step guides! Here are a few of the faces that he has created using the distortion technique and Nikoloon tool!

By Niko Fric CBA

By Niko Fric CBA

By Niko Fric CBA

Here is his guide to making a face... but visit his website to see these instructions and more in greater detail! www.nikoloon.com Niko will ship the 'Nikoloon' anywhere in the world... free shipping!

There are many different techniques used to create distortion with balloons, in the Part 3 of this blog I will show some simple ways to create shaped faces... but like anything, it is practise and experimenting that makes perfect results! Do you remember when you first tried to tie a balloon! Don't expect to make the perfect face the first time you try :)

Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com

My favorite balloons for 2011... what are yours?

With only a matter of a few weeks before we reach the end of 2011, I have started to reflect on the year that has passed... and oh boy was it quick!

I do not want to dwell on the less positive side of 2011, I think that our daily news reports do that very well and I am certainly not an expert when it comes to politics and economics!

So I thought that I would start this series of blogs reflecting on 'balloons'.

Like many of you, my life revolves around balloons and has done so for the past 20 plus years! I get very excited when I see all the new styles and designs each year and cannot wait to see what I and others can make with each and every one of these balloons!

Our favorite balloons for 2011

So, if someone asked you 'what was your favorite Qualatex balloon for 2011, what would it be and why"? I asked a few of my friends in the industry to help me out with this.

Tope Abulude CBA, Balloon Inspirations says that his best selling balloon for 2011 is:

Minnie Mouse # 27568

"I would say the Mickey & Minnie Mouse bubbles"

Mickey Mouse #27569

"I have made various types of arrangements/sculptures with them, and they have proved to be quite a hit for us this year!  The shaped head makes it possible for me to make simple, inexpensive sculptures for my client...so they get a unique piece of Art that's not available in Clintons (in your face Clintons :p) On the latex side, my customers really like the baby pink and wild berry happy birthday mix and polka dot wild berry":o"

Kevin Proctor CBA, Premier Balloons

Deco Bubble Scroll Filigree # 23593 20"

"Deco bubbles for us!
They're so versatile and work for any occasion or season! None of our competitors do them, they're cheap to us, the floating time is....yonks! They're all so easy to add value to them and they're just so different to a 'normal' balloon!

We use 'decos' a lot in bouquets as well as centrepieces. I'd say polka dot with an 11" inside would be the most popular but its a close call between that and the clear 20" deco with an 11" print inside. Also....adding to the deco bubble praises, we use a lot in decor as well, great for indoors and out!

Colour of the year - I'd have to say 'bubblegum pink' (I've given it that name) which is a double stuffed jewel magenta with a std white inside, customers go crazy for it - try it, it looks so vibrant and bright!"

Colin Myles CBA, Smiley Balloons

"My favourite just now is the three foot super agate, any colour but preferably all the colours in a room design, I think I am in love with them"!

Enza Mondello CBA, Balloon Express Patti

"My is 11" super agate all colours"!!!!!

Andrey Osokin CBA

My favorite super agate ))

Roses & Butterflies 24" Deco Bubble # 29718

Mike & Sara Harris CBA - For Every Occasion

"Yep, most 'defo' the heart and butterfly deco bubbles for us - you can utilise them in so many ways and they are easy money! Big thumbs up but new designs would be greatly welcomed"!

Big Polka Dot Wild Berry 11"

Renata Fric CBA, Magic D.o.o

'Top seller for us was Polka dots balloons... and the colour wild berry. Great response was on the 24" deco bubble with print, as they really give great effect in the decor, specially as table decor and like Kevin says, they are great for indoors and outdoors, what is specially in a hot summer time very good and you can even deliver them in the van"

Neil Armstrong CBA, Sensational Balloons.

'The new bubble Festive Trees & Snowman has become a big hit with the 11" merry Christmas festive assortment plus also the 24" printed deco bubbles have been very good because you can attach a lot more to them and not worry about them coming down!'

Festive Tree & Snowman # 31851 22"

So now it's my turn, here are my favorites! I have a few actually...

Damask Accent Patterns # 34430 18"

I think that I would have to start with the NEW Diamond Accents™, a little bit of a late runner for 2011 as they did not make the 2011 Qualatex Catalogue, so I think they will feature in my 2012 list too!  For me, these are every designers dream! The shape of the balloon fits so well into a Balloon Bouquet creating beautiful lines, but it's also the strong designs that make them so very special! 

Over the past few months we have seen more and more ways of working with this fantastic shape balloon, especially for air-filled decor! 

Design created by Luc Bertrand CBA

I strongly believe that if you give a group of creative balloon artists a balloon, each person would come up with their own unique concept and way of working with them... and that has to be great for our industry!  Luc Bertrand created this New Year's design using the Qualatex Diamond Expression New Year Sparkle # 27673 18", but this same concept can be used for any of the Diamond Accent balloons. This design can be hung as a mobile that will freely turn with air currents or hung against a back-drop... and they last so long!

My other great favorite this year and I am sure that it will be the same for 2012 too, is the Damask print! I just love it! The combination of the Damask Accent with the Damask Print-A-Round latex, it's elegant and stunning!

Damask Print-A-Round # 31471

The colour Wild Berry has been a huge hit with both balloon artists and the public.

I could continue to list all my 'other' favorites too, I agree with everyone above, the Mickey & Minnie Mouse Double Bubbles have opened up a huge world for us in terms of retail and decor designs. I also 'LOVE' all Deco Bubble's... a balloon artists best friend, visually fantastic, very adaptable, durable and long long lasting!
And of course Big Polks Dots & Super Agates... in every colour :) 

It would be great to hear what your favorite 2011 Qualatex balloons are and why, you can add your comments at the bottom of this blog, we would love to hear from you :)
I am just off to try out Kevin's "Bubblegum' Pink!

Have a great weekend!

Sue