Old MacDonald had a Farm... NEW, Fun Farm-Themed Qualatex Balloons

I would like to start this post with a little farm barn trivia! Do you know why farm barns are always red?

The practice actually started in the late 18th century with New England farmers applying a protective varnish to barn surfaces. The varnish usually contained some mixture of linseed oil, lime, or iron oxide, which, under the sun, would then turn to the red ochre hue that we have become so familiar with.

Children absolutely adore farm animals, and creating farm theme party decor is a colourful and fun way to appeal to children of all ages! 

Earlier this month, I created a range of window displays to showcase some of the new Qualatex balloons that were launched at the Spring Fair at the NEC Birmingham. When I saw the new Birthday-Farm range I knew exactly what I wanted to make and immediately started designing a Red Barn! 

To design the barn, I used Chris Adamo's Balloon Pro.co Design Tool. If you have never used this tool I strongly recommend that you have a little play using the 7 day free trial. I absolutely love it and use it on a regular basis, it helps me to work out what style of wall that I need to make to ensure that I get the end result I am looking for. This definitely makes it very worth the minimal monthly fee! 

The barn is made using the Alternate Size Pack technique, with my balloons sized at  3" and 4". The Bran is built in columns, and then linked together using the "paperclip and elastic band" method. To give the barn greater stability, I added in two poles and bases and also secured it to the top of the window using 50lb monofilament line just in case someone decided to try and move it - you will be amazed what people will do to get a good photo! 

The window display design was designed around this new 18" Birthday Barn balloon. Look at this balloon and now look at my window display to see the similarities!

18" Birthday Barn
#26549

You will see that in my window display, I have added in other elements such as the mini Pig and Cow sculptures and some of the new 14" Retro Daisies to bring this window to life and to re-create the scene from the balloon as accurately as possible.

Here are all the other new products in this range:

28" CUTE HOLSTEIN COW #26540
14" MINI CUTE HOLSTEIN COW #27311

18" BIRTHDAY HOLSTEIN COW PATTERN
#26553

And don't forget these other great farm theme balloons! 

Holstein Cow
11" White #11633
Another bit of trivia, this is Qualatex's  No 1. selling printed balloon! 

34" Farm Tractor
#16468

30" Playful Pig #16202
14" Playful Pig #41799

32" Hilarious Horse #16210 (Limited Availability)
14" Hilarious Horse #41796

Here are a few more Farm theme ideas! 

Don’t have a cow!

This cow creation makes a big impact!

Designer name: Cam Woody, CBA, Pioneer Balloon Company, Wichita, KS, USA

Mooooove over for birthdays!

Adorable cows and pigs make for a fun birthday!

Designer name: Cam Woody, CBA, Pioneer Balloon Company, Wichita, KS, USA

If you are unsure how to make the Alternate Size Balloon Wall, check out my previous post: Balloon Wall Part 2

Creating something fun and new is always very rewarding! Though I am very familiar with creating balloon walls. this Red Barn presented new challenges for me, especially when creating the sloping roof! 

Happy Ballooning! 

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me @suebowler

Cupcake Theme Balloon Decoration Ideas!

Last week I attended the Spring Fair at the NEC Birmingham. Spring Fair is an annual B2B trade show where businesses go, and that includes many of the major high street and online retailers as well as small independent stores, to buy new and inspiring products to sell in their stores. The fair is not only balloon and party related, it covers an abundance of products from fashion to jewellery, cookware and thousands of other products! The next show will be from the 4th -7th February 2024, so don't forget to mark it in your diary if you are UK based! 

So what does this have to do with Cupcakes? Each year, for more years than I can actually remember, I have been given the amazing opportunity to create balloon designs for Qualatex Europe's windows at this trade event! Each year I am tasked with creating and designing displays that feature new balloons and products from scratch.

Balloon Cupcake by Sue Bowler, inspired by Dante Longhi

For my first window, I was asked to feature the new Birthday Ombrè Cupcake, a fabulous new 31" Microfoil balloon.

My Inspiration

Before I even touch a balloon, I start by creating a mood board; this helps me to get an idea of the balloons that I should feature within my displays. I use Canva to create my mood boards. I simply import the balloons and any images that I want to use to help me with my display. This is also a great way to show your clients your ideas when you are still in the development stages of your designs.

Cupcake Window Display Mood-Board 

I knew that Dante Longhi of Dream Factory Balloons in New Jersey, USA had designed and made balloon cupcakes, so this was my first stop, to find out the technique! Fortunately for me, Dante had filmed himself making the cupcake for the QCorner convention last year. 

To learn how to make Dante's 3-D Cupcake Sculpture watch the video below! 

Watching this video was invaluable as it helped me understand the technique that I needed to use. My next challenge was then to work out the balloon sizing, as my cupcake was much smaller than Dante's! I surprisingly worked out the sizing quite quickly and after only a few attempts my cupcake began to take shape! I cannot tell you how much fun I had creating this design and seeing it grow into the final result! 

Here are photos from each step of building the cupcake:

Base Layer

View looking into the Cupcake

Second Layer Added

Two Layers of Frosting added

And the final balloon added to fill in the top

Here is the final result and my window display!

I did actually make some changes to Dante's original design. I only use four rings, whereas Dante uses five. This helped me to reduce the size and height of the design to ensure that it was in proportion to the window space that I had available.

Balloon Cupcake by Sue Bowler - inspired by Dante Longhi

Window Display created by Sue Bowler for Qualatex Europe at Spring Fair 2023

If you are interested to learn how to make the smaller cupcake design, email me sue@bapiaonline.com and I will happily share the sizing, just follow the same construction techniques as shown in Dante's video above! 

A huge thank you to Dante for his incredible talent and for sharing this design! 

I will be sharing my other window displays over the next few weeks! 

Happy Ballooning! 

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me @suebowler

Spring Fair 2022 - Check out what we've been up to on the Qualatex Stand! Part 1.

So what is Spring Fair? Probably the best way to describe Spring Fair is that it is a B2B (business to business) trade show for the retail market.This show attracts thousands of customers from around the world looking to buy new and exciting products for their shops, stores and showrooms.

Spring Fair has been an annual event for me for many years. Each year I have had the honour and privilege (and what some might call daunting task) of creating a variety of displays for the Qualatex stand. My remit is to create displays that displays new and existing products in a creative way to promote and inspire customers visiting the stand.

Due to the worldwide pandemic, last year's show was cancelled, as with most events! As you can imagine, myself and the Pioneer Europe Team were extremely happy to be back once again! 

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

Meet the Pioneer Europe Team and Instructors

Pioneer Europe Team & Instructors

The Window Displays

Designs by Sue Bowler, CBA

This year I was assigned four themes to create designs for, and each theme required two displays. It is the first time that I have made displays for double-decker windows, and so I was a little unsure how it would work. I am happy to report that it was successful!

These are the themes I got to create for:

• Dinosaur
• New Baby
• Adult Milestone Birthday
• Child Birthday

Dinosaur theme

If I am honest, when I was first asked to create a display with the Dino theme, I was a little concerned, as this is not a 'subject' that I usually work with! However, it proved to be one of my favourite window displays ever, and offered me the opportunity to step outside of my usual style! The tree that I made was actually created in inspiration of the extremely talented Alberto Falcone, CBA. Alberto is a true artist and everything that he makes is a work of art! 

Sue Bowler with her Dinosaur window display

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

The hoop display below had a mobile effect, and gently spun around with slight air movement.

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

Northstar 46" Stegosaurus
#63854

42" Tyrannosaurus
#88459

The tree was made from aluminium rod and secured to a small weighted base. I used 160Q and 260Q balloons to create the tree, and twisted and twined them together to create this fabulous effect. To ensure that the balloons lasted and looked good for the duration of the show, I treated each balloon with HI-FLOAT. This may sound like a tricky job, but it's actually quite easy when you use the smallest bottle that has the long nozzle that fit perfectly into a 260Q! 

The hoop design was made on PVC electrical conduit that was secured with a push fit connector. Using PVC conduit allowed me to make the hoop the size that I required for the design.

Qualatex Balloon Colours

All the balloons were double-stuffed: this is something that I always do when I create displays for events such as this. This ensures that the balloons last the duration of the event, plus I like to create custom colours to give tonal changes and create new and exciting colours! This colour selection would also be perfect for a Harry Potter themed party.

Qualatex

Mocha Brown

Emerald Green

Spring Green

Sparkling Burgundy

Green

Chrome Gold

Baby Theme

This window gave me the opportunity to display the new Baby Girl Garland and Baby Girl Dark SkinTone balloon. You will see that I have included some of the garland shapes with my design below, if you would like to learn how to do this I have added a link to Cam & Eve's video - Happy Hour with Cam & Eve: Let's play with the NEW Microfoil Garland Balloon.

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

22" Baby Girl Pink Confetti Dots Bubble
#10035

41" Baby Girl Garland
#17765

38" Baby Girl Dark Skin Tone
#18943

Adult Milestone Display

I love a pink and floral display, so as you can imagine this was a favourite for me. In this display I featured the fabulous new 33" Pink Peony and the 22" Birthday to You Pink Peonies Bubble balloon. I also used one of my favourites, the 18" Birthday Pink & Gold Dots, which is such an elegant balloon. I accented my designs with beautiful silk peonies and greenery. For the smaller window, I created a heart using a heart frame and added balloons in an organic style. The colours that I used are:

Qualatex

Pink

Rose

Wild Berry

Pearl Pink

White

Chrome Gold

Mocha Brown - Inside Rose and Pearl Pink

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

22" Birthday to you Pink Peonies Bubble
#18649

33" Pink Peony 
#18712

Child Milestone Display

The fourth and final window display was to show the new Birthday Blue Dots (Ages 1-5) and the Birthday Boy Blue Dots balloons. This was such a fun display to make. I created a number 3 frame and made some Monkey Balloon Buddies... all of which would be perfect for a 3 year olds birthday! 

18" Birthday Boy Blue Dots
#18874

18" Age 3 Blue Dots
#23109

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

Design by Sue Bowler, CBA

The colours that I used in this display are:

Qualatex

Pale Blue

Pearl Light Blue

Robin's Egg Blue

Caribbean Blue

White

Pearl Azure

Chrome Gold

In Part 2, I will show you the "Four Seasons" displays that Alberto Falcone and I made, along with other attractive features from the stand! 

I hope that you enjoyed seeing all these designs, and that it might give you a little inspiration for your own displays and designs! 

Happy Ballooning! 

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me @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