Ice Cream Theme Party Decor Ideas! - Updated August 2020

The great thing about this exciting theme is all the wonderful Qualatex^® balloons and the fabulous colours that we can use! 

Tanya Joselowsky, CBA - The Pop in Johannesburg, South Africa

Here are some fabulous ice cream-themed centrepiece ideas created by Tanya Joselowsky.

Everything coordinates at this party, from the balloons to the chair covers and table napkins. It looks fun, exciting, and very professional. Great job, Tanya!

Tanya uses ‟Big Polka Dots” and SuperAgates to give her decor that  ‟sprinkles and swirls” effect.

I love the idea of the upside-down ice cream cone.

Have you been watching "Happy Hour" with Cam Woody, CBA, and Eve Antonello, CBA? They recently created some super 'cool' Ice Cream designs! Happy Hour is a weekly Live show that can be viewed at 1:00pm CST on Mr Q's Facebook Page or over on Instagram at @eveantonellocba! If you miss it, never fear, you can always catch-up afterwards on either of these platforms.

Eve Antonello and Cam Woody

If you would like to learn how to make these fabulous design check out the video below! 

Here are some great ice cream-themed Microfoil^® balloons in the Qualatex range! 

Rainbow Swirl Ice Cream - available in 14" and 45"

I love this delivery arrangement that features the new Rainbow Swirl Ice Cream, with the fabulous new 11" Colourful Dots latex and the 18" Birthday Rainbow Dots Microfoil balloon.













I love this window display deigned by Luc Bertrand, he incorporates a great selection of balloons that compliment each other very well to create this exciting design! 

Design by Luc Bertrand

How about this cool - almost good enough to eat - "Sweet Treat" delivery! Using the 22" "Birthday Frozen Treats" Bubble balloon is the perfect topper for this great design! 

30" "Rainbow Poop Sparkles"
#97534

A huge thank you to Tanya, Cam, Eve and Luc for sharing their wonderful creativity and inspiration with the Very Best Balloon Blog!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com

Follow me on Instagram @suebowler

Think pink and sparkly! Introducing our new "Sparkle" range! February 2016

When I was asked to design and create a "pink" window display for Qualatex^® at the Spring Fair trade show at the NEC in Birmingham, U.K. I was extremely happy! Happy that I would be working with the new Pink Starburst Sparkle and Birthday Sparkle range, but also very happy that I would have the opportunity to add some exciting "sparkly" elements to the displays, too!

18 Pink Starburst Sparkle Bubble Balloon
#43122
U.S. Patent No. 6,782,675

The window space for each of the displays is quite limited, allowing on this occasion enough room for three focal displays. Working with the theme "celebration," I decided to feature age eighteen as the milestone age.

Adding a touch of "Glitz" to your balloon decor. January 2016

Last year I created a class called "Elegant Decor for Black Tie Affairs," that I taught in four cities around the U.S. as part of the Qualatex^® U.S. Tour. The first stop on my leg of the tour was a visit to burton^® + BURTON in Bogart, GA. It is always a wonderful treat when I get the opportunity to visit a wholesaler. Seeing all the gorgeous products that a wholesaler sells alongside balloons is inspiring, especially for me as I am based in the U.K. and visiting a U.S. distributor is such a bonus!  It was during this tour stop that I was introduced to an amazing product called "Diamond Mesh" by the lovely Peggy Williams, who is the education coordinator at burton^® + BURTON. Diamond Mesh or "Rhinestone Ribbon" as I have also seen it called, was a totally new product for me. With a little creative help from Peggy, I soon had some lovely ideas that I felt would really add a little glitz to our designs and also adds greater perceived value to our work!

Diamond Mesh Ribbon

Love You Red Ribbon 18" Microfoil^® Balloon - #21647

One of my favourite Valentine's balloons is the Qualatex^®  "Love You Red Ribbon". As much as it is a Valentine's balloon, I can also see it being used at other times such as anniversaries or to simply say "I love you" at any time of the year!





I created two designs using this balloon and added the "glitz" to each of the designs using satin and Diamond Mesh ribbons.

The first design is quite simple. You will see that I have cut a single strip* from the ribbon and used it to highlight the edge of the ribbon line that is featured on the balloon. I also made a simple bow from satin ribbon and trimmed the bow with a little of the Diamond Mesh ribbon.

Mustache or Moustache ... it's a 'growing' trend!

For the past few years we have seen a growing trend... literally!

Harry, Monty & Big Tom! - by Sue Bowler CBA

 The Mustache, love it or loath it, it's a trend that look set to stay!

How did this more recent trend start... well doing a little bit of research, I would suggest that it might have something to do with 2 'mates' in Melbourne, Australia, who together in 2003 talked their mates into growing a 'Mo' with them, they called their event Movember after the month of November, the month they chose for their challenge! 

This started out as a bit of fun, but today 'Movember' is an amazing charity that has raised almost £100m to date with an aim to support world class men's health programs that combat prostrate and testicular cancer and mental health challenges. To find out more about Movember you can visit their website by simply click here!

As with any trend, holiday or celebration the Mustache craze has created an opportunity to design and sell mustache decor and balloons... along with many other mustache accessories!

Here are a few great idea's to help kick off your Movember decor!

How can we 'jazz up' our quotes?

      

In the past few weeks I have decorated two birthday parties, one to celebrate a 21st Birthday and the other an almost 'surprise' 50th birthday! 

I do not decorate very often any more, not because I don't want to, but it is not so easy when you have other commitments and cannot guarantee being available... but I was delighted to have the opportunity to go through the whole process once again from consultation to completion. 

It's funny because when I teach a class these days I try to include a small section covering 'selling techniques', as I feel this is such a vital part of our business, so this was my opportunity to put my words in to practice!

Both of the customer enquiries came via a telephone call, both informed me that they were on a budget and that they did not want to spend too much.

Firstly, I wanted to know a little about the person who's birthday it was, was there a theme, where was the party being held, favourite colours, anything and everything that could help me to decide what type of decor to propose.

One client wanted to meet up and discuss the party in greater detail, the other client was more than happy for me to send some ideas over the internet.

But not once did I ask them what their budget was!

Animal Magic - some great balloon designs with an animal theme!

This Giraffe stands  6' Tall! 

Having a Jungle or Safari party theme is very popular for all ages, my first encounter of a Safari theme party was at IBAC 15 in 2001, which was the first time that I taught at IBAC having been a competitor for the previous 2 IBACs! 

I was given the task of designing animal trophy heads for the Hunters Lodge for the Thursday night Costume Party, which I have detailed a little later in this blog.

The IBAC Jungle Party was designed by Glenna Kipp, CBA. Glenna and her amazing team transformed the ballroom into a magnificent jungle! I have just looked back at Balloon Images April/May/June 2002 and reminded myself of all the fun designs that were created from Sky Broom Tree's, Monkey Tree's, Safari Falls and Palm Tree Paradise... just to name a few! 

The 'Art' of Fantasy Flowers!

Fantasy Flowers... love them or hate them?

Mother's Day Design created by Sue Bowler CBA

I know that this is a bit of a 'bold' statement, but it's true, there are those of us who can see that using this technique can enhance a balloon design and there are those who don't think that they have any place in the balloon industry... which one are you?

A 'sparkly' balloon centrepiece for the festive season.

A little 'sparkle'...

With Christmas and New Years celebrations just around the corner, I thought that this would be the perfect time to create a centrepiece that would be perfect for festive parties!

This design is packed with different elements and techniques, you might like to try out some of these  when you create your own designs.

Centrepiece design created by Sue Bowler CBA

Material List:

• 5" Qualatex Pearl Azure #43577
• 5" Qualatex  Silver #43603
• 5" Qualatex Pearl White #43597
• 9" Qualatex Sapphire  Microfoil Stars #24131
• 4" Qualatex Sapphire Microfoil Stars #22849
• 4" Qualatex Silver Microfoil Star 14355
• 11" Qualatex Pearl Azure #43768
• 13" Qualatex Sapphire Microfoil Taper #32016
• 9" Lomey Dish 
• 21" Lomey Acrylic Column
• Lomey Universal Centrepiece - (Required with Lomey columns to form a base) I also use one at the top.
• Lomey Adhesive
• Premium Balloon Accessories 7" Cup-N-Sticks
• Fine Powder Glitter
• Floral wires and tapes to create fantasy leaves.
• Crystal Nuggets- available form floral wholesalers
• Silver Beads 
• Clear Cellophane
• Cool Glue Gun
• Floral Dry Foam - used for arranging silk flowers.

Techniques Used:

Start by gluing the Lomey Universal Centrepiece to the Lomey Dish as this can take up to 24 hours to fully dry, so you need to think about this in advance of making up your centrepieces! 

You could use a cool glue gun to glue them together, but be aware that cool glue is temperature reactive, that means if it gets cold the glue can become brittle and break, whereas Lomey adhesive once applied is a permanent fixing, Lomey glue is also waterproof, so if you want to fill the tubes with water, then you must use Lomey glue!

Lomey Column with Universal Centrepiece -  that is the small disc at the base.

Lomey is a range of products that are used within the floral industry and is supplied by a company called Smithers- Oasis, many balloon wholesalers and distributors stock this product and other relevant floral supplies.

Design by Kevin Ylvisaker, AIFD, PFCI, Smithers-Oasis Design Director

This is a design that I found on a website that shows off the Lomey Columns really well, these have been filled with coloured water which works perfectly with this modern floral arrangement!

For my centrepiece design, I filled the tube with iridescent nuggets that I found at my floral wholesaler, they were inexpensive and look really stunning inside the tube!

Glitter Balloons

I would recommend that you prepare these first as they can take a few hours to dry, you really would not want to handle them wet!

Balloons and glitter

Hi-Float have some great instructions on their website www.hi-float.com in their design tips section. I have copied the technique for putting glitter on the outside of 11" balloons, which is very similar to what I do with 5". They also have some great video clips on their youtube channel!

Step 1: Pour ULTRA HI-FLOAT into a cup.

Step 2: Place the 5" balloon over a straw

Step 3: Dip the balloon into the HI-FLOAT, I also rub it in to ensure that the entire surface is cover, remove any excess.

Step 4: Using a hand pump, inflate the 5" balloon and tie, I like to make my glitter balloons different  sizes and not too big. 

Step 5: Shake the fine glitter over the balloons until it is completely covered and shake off the excess.

Step 6: Repeat the same process until all the balloons are covered, and leave to dry without touching each other, so that they do not stick together.

Tips:

Capture all the excess glitter on a sheet of paper so that you can re-use it, a small amount of glitter goes a long way!

If you are using different coloured balloons, try and match a glitter colour for the balloons that you are using. I used 3 different coloured glitter for this design!

Holographic Silver Glitter

Iridescent White Glitter

Light Blue Glitter

Great instructions on the Hi-Float website!

Balloon 'Leaves'.

I have used 2 different types of 'leaves' in this design.

4" & 9" Microfoil Stars make fantastic leaves! Simply heat seal the balloon down the centre and then inflate and seal as normal. 

The second type of leaf that I have created for this design is a 'fantasy' leaf or petal. This is a technique that we use to create fantasy flowers.

To make a fantasy flower petal you will need:

18 Gauge floral wires, binding wire and 11" balloons.

18 Gauge wire minimum 14" in length

Reel wire

Simply bend the floral wire in half and insert the rounded centre into the un-inflated 11" balloon. Stretch the balloon to the base of the folded wire and secure using 'reel wire', usually 28 gauge. Once you have created your petal or leaf you can bend it to create any shape that you like.

To construct the design:

Starting from the base, I cut a small disc if dry floral foam and position that at the base of my lomey and lomey dish.

Now add all the elements that you want to use. I used 2 x 14" Sapphire Stars that I had made into leaves and a further 3 x 4" Stars.

Secure each of the 'glitter' balloons to a Premium 7" Cup N Stick, you can push these easily into the floral foam, if you are concerned that they will fall out add a small dab of cool glue before pushing them in position, this will help them to stay in place. 

I like to randomly position the glitter balloons so that they look like snowballs or a pile of Christmas baubles', make sure that your design looks visually pleasing from all sides.

There will be gaps, be careful not to overfill the centrepiece design, just simply make squares of cellophane and push these into the gaps to fill in the space! If you can find iridescent cellophane, that looks amazing!

To complete the base, I added in some silver string beads just gently swagged into the design, with no set pattern.

I then filled the tube with iridescent nuggets and added a second Universal Centrepiece connector, this acts like a cap and works well at both the base to secure to the dish and at the top, where I have just simply added a small disc of dry foam.

I have kept the top very simple. Firstly add a 13" Qualatex Starpoint into the centre of the dry foam again using a Premium Cup N Stick, I the positioned 3 'fantasy' petal around the base of the taper and small cluster of 'glitter' balloons. Finally, filling all the gaps with cellophane squares to hide all the mechanics!

Here is another 'glittery' design using some of the same techniques is in this design!

I hope that this blog has given you a little inspiration to create your own 'glittery' design!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.com

How to design themed air-filled balloon centrepiece design - Christmas theme

I love designing centrepieces, I think that I have mentioned before that I prefer designing on a small scale rather than large scale... although, I think that it was Tope Abulude CBA who suggested treating all projects in 'bite sizes pieces' and just keep adding elements to create large scale decor, which I think is great advice!

It is time to for us to get creative and look at all the different ways we can create exciting designs & decor working with air-filled balloons rather than helium filled balloons for our forthcoming events. 

Before we can start to design our centrepiece designs we need to understand our clients needs and wants...

Design created by Sue Bowler CBA

THE CLIENT

Be professional and enthusiastic, it will give the client confidence in your ability to create a fantastic atmosphere at their event.

Find out as many details as possible regarding the event including: the venue, what the occasion is, previous decor and themes, anything that may help you in designing your centrepieces.

From the size of the event, the venue and the entertainment, you should be able to estimate approx. the size of budget that they should be prepared to  spend.

Take notes when you meet up with your clients, this will help you when you are putting together your quotation and shows your professionalism.

WORKING WITH A THEME

This is the perfect opportunity for 'thought showers'... let me show you what I mean!

We will use a very common theme CHRISTMAS, 'easy' I hear you say... or is it!

The first thing we need to do is break our theme down into different categories:

Traditional: Xmas trees * Snowmen * Father Christmas * Rudolph * Carol Singers * Holly * Wreaths * Candy Canes * Xmas Pudding * Xmas Stockings.

Traditional Religious: Angels, North Star, Candles

Modern: Boxes, Baubles, Lights, Crackers

Elegant: Stars, Snow, Snowflakes, presents, crackers, candles

I am sure that there are many more ideas and suggestions that you may have to add! 

Great, now we have worked out the different ways that Christmas can be interpreted from traditional through to elegant, we now need to consider the colours that we can associate with each of the categories 

 Traditional: Red, Green, Gold

 Traditional Religious: Gold, Blue, Green

 Modern: Purple, Gold, Silver, Red

 Elegant: Gold, Silver, White, Clear

The final part of this process is to put each element with the ideal colours:

RED: Father Christmas/ Santa, Baubles, Christmas Stockings, Holly Berries, Candy Canes

This 'mood board' shows a range of 'Red' Qualatex balloons that depicts  'Traditional' Christmas.

GREEN: Christmas Trees, Holly, Wreathes...

This 'mood board' shows a range of 'Green' Qualatex balloons that depicts 'Traditional ' Christmas

GOLD: Stars, Boxes, Candles, Baubles

This 'mood board' shows a range of 'Gold' Qualatex balloons that depicts 'Elegant' Christmas.

I repeat this process until I have looked at all the elements and all the colours. I am really only looking for one or two ideas to interpret within my theme, working with the colours will really help with your selection.

Mood boards like the one's I have created above are a great way to show off your ideas to your clients, it truly shows your skills as a designer.

To see the full range of Qualatex Christmas & New Year 2012 balloons download the seasonal catalog now... click HERE to download the right version for your country.

US version

European version

THE DESIGN

Now I have all this information, I am able to present different ideas to my client that I know will excite and fulfil their needs!

Size Matters – The first thing to consider is the size of the table you’re working with. From large dining room tables, to folding banquet tables, to round tables, the size is going to dictate how much or how little space you have to work with, or fill up. Your centerpiece arrangement should be proportional to the size of the table. 

Don’t Be One-Sided – Remember your guests will be sitting all the way around the table so make sure your centrepiece is pretty from all angles. A design should only be front facing if you are positioning it on a front facing buffet table and in this instance this would be more of an arrangement than a centrepiece.

Height rules - remember the 14" centrepiece rule (can the guests see across the table)? You could create the most stunning design, however, if it obstructs the visual line and guests cannot see each other, you can bet that the centrepiece will be removed and sadly placed on the floor... I have seen it happen and often at balloon events!

Is it strong? - is your design strong, well constructed and easy to transport? Does is contain enough weight if you are attaching helium balloons to it?

Have you fulfilled your customers needs? - Have you created a design that excites your client?

Here are 2 air-filled centrepiece designs that could both be used for a Christmas theme party.... both very different!

Design 1.

Design 1. Traditional Christmas design

This design is made up of:

• 17 x 5" Green balloons
• 15 x 260Q Red balloons
• 1 x Flower pot
• small square of floral dry foam 
• 5 x wood sticks (collected from my garden)
• 2m Red satin ribbon
• 30cm Red Wire (optional)

Just add up the cost of these materials... not very expensive I think you'll agree!

Design 2

Design 2. Modern Elegant

By contrast to Design 1, this design uses the 'new' Snowflakes Sparkles Blue... with a Holographic finish that adds a beautiful sparkle effect! This design would be suitable for an elegant Christmas event that wants something different from the more traditional Christmas decor.

This design was made up of:

9 x 5" Pearl Sapphire Blue balloons

9 x 5" Pearl Azure balloons

18 x 5" White balloons (I have used these to double stuff the Sapphire & Azure 5")

1 x 160Q Pearl Azure

1 x 160Q Pearl White

1 x 350Q White (to cover the black pole)

1 x Snowflakes Sparkles Blue #40089

Base and pole - I have used an IKEA 'Not' base and 2 sections of the pole, you could use Lomey or other alternatives, a long as they are heavy enough to be stable on a table.

Although I have used the theme Christmas for this blog, this same technique can be applied for any theme, and the two designs I have shown here can also be adapted to suit any theme, just by simply changing the balloon colours and the accessories.

Qualatex Christmas Business  Booster

Have you checked out the latest Qualatex Business Booster filled with some truly inspiring ideas for Christmas!

Is it too early to be thinking about Christmas... certainly not! Take this opportunity to be prepared and show your customer your range of exciting design ideas for Christmas... even without helium you can make fantastic decor with great impact!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.com