Several Christmases ago, Luc Bertrand, CBA, of Waw Balloons, Vichte, Belgium, very kindly gifted the readers of the Very Best Balloon Blog with a recipe to make his QuickLinks™️ Santa Mural. Today I decided to play with the design a little, and I made a few tiny tweaks, and sprinkled in a few little organic additions.
The basic frame for this design is much the same as Luc's original (see design and details below). The only real changes are the addition of the fillers. In the original design, Luc does not fill the gaps between the links, I just wanted to see how it would look if I made these changes, and I really liked the result! For the hat, I used single balloon fillers, but for Santa's hair and beard, I used random-sized cluster (organic) fillers, which gave it a more realistic textured beard!
This fantastic Santa design is quick and easy to re-create. When made with 6" QuickLinks, it's ideal for a window display, however, if you step up the sizing and use 12" QuickLinks your design will have an even bigger impact - perfect for a Christmas event!
To see Luc's original Santa Mural design and recipe, click HERE.
Thank you Luc for the original design, and I hope that you like the few little additions that I made!
With Christmas and the holiday season only a matter of a few weeks away, I thought that I would take this opportunity to rekindle some of the seasonal designs that I and other fellow balloon artists have made over the years. Many of these designs have been documented in earlier blogs, so to make it a little easier for you to find, I will add a direct link with each of the designs that are featured. In most instances, there is a step-by-step recipe included within the blog!
I love this festive balloon wall! We created this using 40" Emerald Green Starpoints and 27" Lime Green Taper Microfoil® Balloons. We were unable to use any latex at this event, so we used 9" Ruby Red solid-colour round Microfoil Balloons at each of the centre points to make it look like holly leaves. Filled with air, this design can easily be suspended. These Christmas presents were great fun to make too!
Well, it's that time of year and Christmas is coming... only 26 days away!
11" Santa & Christmas Tree 31012
I thought that this would be the perfect time to give you a little bit of Christmas inspiration! Fill your shops and stores with Santa designs READY TO GO! Let everyone know that you are taking orders for Christmas and that they need to book their Santa today to avoid disappointment!
Here is a Santa that I made a few years ago. He pretty tall standing about 8'
high, so not really a good retail design, but perfect for decor. Make 2 of these and add a Christmas arch in between, great for an entrance or over a stage!
I have now created a
new version that is shorter, standing approx.5' tall and therefore much
easier for someone to get in to their car! Perfect for homes, offices, restaurants, hotels... inexpensive to make but with BIG perceived value! Click on the DVD below to get the step by step instructions.
Step-By Step recipe for 5' Santa. It can be made in about 30-45 minutes depending on what equipment you are working with!
Here are some other ideas for Christmas...
Contemporary Santa 18" 99799
Create these 350Q Santa's, these really do add value to an 18" foil!
Remember... almost anyone can inflate a helium filled balloon and attach it to a ribbon and weight, let's face it, that's what most of our competitors do! But making up a design like this takes skill and know-how... watch these flying out of your stores!
Don't forget to visit www.qualatex.com for some great idea's, sales tips and for QBN members a little bit more in the Christmas Business Booster section!
How about making one of these fantastic Santa Arches made by Kevin Proctor CBA of Premier Balloons, Manchester, UK. His arch uses a very similar technique that I used in my design above, but Kevin has turned it into an arch... I love it, it's fun and it has so much personality!
I asked Kevin if he had any tips to share when making the Santa arch?
Tip 1: As the balloons decrease in size from 11” Ruby Red to 5” Ruby Red, I double stuffed the first two 5” clusters to keep the colour nice and deep for the shade to be as consistent as possible and to disguise the switch from under-inflated 11” to the fully inflated 5”.
Tip 2: The Santa hat bobble is just made from 12 x 5” white (make a mini topiary) to create a nice round bobble for where the hats meet at the top of the arch.
Other than that, I imagine the rest of the design is pretty self explanatory, obviously it can be made taller, arms and legs can be added to the Santa's as well as accessories (belt and buckle, a sack, parcels, candy canes etc etc etc)
Merry Christmas!
Kevin - Premier Balloons
Don't forget to download all the Seasonal Bouquet Ideas from the Qualatex website to inspire your customers, make up some of the designs READY TO GO and add them to your On-Counter Design Menu... so easy for your customers to select the arrangements that they want, and don't forget to show the price, customers like to know what they are spending!
So, it's here, the big festive countdown. I hope that you have the best Christmas trading ever!
