A "BACI" Alice in Wonderland Extravaganza!

Designing and planning a theme party is challenging, but also a great deal of fun! We are very lucky to be part of this industry, and I am very fortunate to get the opportunity to attend so many wonderful theme parties when I travel to teach at conventions around the world. I think half of my wardrobe is filled with fancy dress costumes!

Cheshire Cat by Alberto Nava, CBA.
Photograph by Luc Bertrand.

At BACI - Balloon Arts Convention Italy this year, our party theme was based on Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, a slightly different take on the original theme. Luc Bertrand, CBA of wAw Balloons, in Vichte, Belgium, was appointed the gala party coordinator and tasked each of the BACI instructors with a project that would be completed by them with the help of delegates on the day of the party. One of the biggest challenges was to transport all the decor from one side of Florence to the other, a factor that certainly had to be taken into consideration when making the designs. The venue was very quirky, with greenery, wood, and foliage hanging from the ceiling. This worked extremely well for our theme. For me, it looked like the rabbit hole, which was absolutely perfect!

Here is a photograph of the venue before we transformed it.

And after!

Centrepiece Designs by Enza Mondello, CBA, and Jośe Luthman, CBA.

Photo by Silvia Ingrid Cotellessa©TheDarkRoom.

Enza Mondello of Balloon Express Shop in Patty, Italy, and Jośe Luthman of Fiesta Mulhouse in Mulhouse, France, were both asked to design centrepieces. Enza chose two different designs for her delegates to make; one with fabulous polka dot teapots and the other with the Queen of Hearts/ Ace of Spades playing card Microfoil balloons. Jośe worked on an intriguing mushroom design created from double stuffed 6" Quick Link Balloons®.

Nicolas Fiault makes the perfect Mad Hatter! 

Photo by Silvia Ingrid Cotellessa©TheDarkRoom.

Mad Hatter hats! These awesome hats were made by delegates as part of a twisting class led by the very talented Alessandro Patanè, CBA, of Balloon Express Shop in Giarre, Italy.

Olga and Olga with their beautiful entrance decor.
Photograph by Luc Bertrand

Olga Baranova, CBA, and Olga Samoilova, CBA, of Sonlnechny Veter in Samara, Russia, took charge of the stunning entrance decor. Not only did it make an exciting entrance piece, but a beautiful photo opportunity, too!

Ted and Betty Vlamis of Pioneer Balloon Company came suitably dressed to the party!
Photograph by Silva Ingrid Cotellessa ©TheDarkRoom

Design by Federico Onida
Photograph by Luc Bertrand

Instagram — Are You Using It To Grow Your Balloon Business?

Instagram is one of the social media groups that I have not really got to grips with. Since I set up my Instagram account, I have used it mainly to post personal photographs, rather than balloons or business related items. It was only when Shannon Kilford of Born to Party in Sydney, Australia, made a really interesting comment regarding Instagram on a recent blog post, I decided that I should really find out more about this social media platform. 

"I am also a passionate Instagram user! This social media platform has literally changed my life and my business! 90% of our customers use it and come to us with pictures off our Instagram account requesting a particular design. I also find it useful for instant messaging and sending images back and forth to my clients. Not many days go by when I'm not using direct messages to communicate with my clients this way! As our account grows, so does our business. It's definitely not a coincidence. You are welcome to check out our Instagram here; www.instagram.com/borntopartyshop

We also use Facebook, and in the beginning it was a great tool for growing our business. But since Facebook made changes to its reach for business pages, it is not nearly as good as it used to be so we don't focus on it as much as we used to."

To read Shannon's full article on "Modern Balloon Styling," click on the link below;
Giant Balloons, Confetti Balloons, Tassels, and Organic Decor — Modern Balloon Styling by Shannon Kilford, Born to Party, Sydney, Australia.

Medium Sculpture Competition BACI 2017

I have just returned from BACI — Balloon Arts Convention Italy, held in Florence, Italy, from the 24th to the 26th April 2017. Once again, we were wowed by some truly inspiring and talented balloon artists who took part in this year's Medium Sculpture Competition. This year's theme was "Once Upon A Time," and all the entries interpreted the theme in very exciting and different ways.

The balloon sculptures had to be built within twelve hours, with a maximum of seven people in each team. The space allocated for each sculpture was 2 x 2 x 3m high.

This year's winners were the Russian team headed up by team captain Vadim Shushkanov, CBA. 

• Title: "The Eye of Sauron"
• Description: Captain: Vadim Shushkanov
• Copyright: © Silvia Ingrid Cotellessa ©TheDarkroom

Photo by EVGENY BAGRETSOV ©Darkroom

To experience a little of the fun and excitement from this competition, check out the video below!

Here are all the other amazing entries.

Giant Balloons, Confetti Balloons, Tassels, and Organic Decor — Modern Balloon Styling by Shannon Kilford, Born to Party, Sydney, Australia.

We are all becoming a little organic crazy!  And it would appear that in Australia, they are pretty good at it!  

Shannon Kilford's ballooning career started when she applied for a job to manage a little party shop called Born To Party, in Sydney, Australia. Little did she realise that on her first day that she was going to be learning how to make balloon Topiary Balls and that one day the shop would be hers!  

I recently met Shannon through working on one of my blogs, A Look At Colour Trends for Spring 2017. Whilst doing my research, I discovered some of Shannon's fabulous designs on Instagram, and I was very inspired by her style.

"My very first organic design was to decorate a stand at one of Sydney's largest makers markets that happens twice a year. I inflated way too many balloons, so I took them back to the shop and made them into Garlands for our table and to float off a giant balloon. This was two years ago. It took off from there!" 

"For this Garland, we were approached to create a super glamorous embellished Garland in navy, white and silver for a client's 40th birthday. We used a combination of Pearl White, White, Silver, Pearl Midnight Blue, and we double stuffed Onyx Black into Jewel Sapphire to create the shiny navy balloons. We then embellished the Garlands with honeycomb balls, silver tassels, silver fringing, and 16" silver confetti balloons! Originally our party girl only wanted one Garland but because of the layout of the room, we had to go for two gorgeous Garlands for symmetry. We finished the room off with giant silver confetti balloons decorated with mini organic style collars and our handmade tassel garlands. I love walking back into the room when we are finished packing up. If I am in love, I know our client will be too!" 

Shannon Kilford

"Eighteen fabulous years ago I first started working with balloons. I did the beginners workshop through Qualatex^® Balloon Company in Australia and got to attend my first Australian Balloon Convention in the first year of being employed at Born To Party. Once I knew the basics and a few advanced techniques, I was able to figure out a lot of the designs for myself and I grew from there by experimenting and taking time to 'play' with balloons. I always try out new designs and ideas and use them in our shop window displays. There is so much education happening this year in Australia. It's super exciting! After so long in the industry, it's exciting to be still learning and enjoying all the new trends in balloon world!"

I asked Shannon to tell me a little about her business.

"Born to Party is a brick and mortar store that has been open for twenty eight years this year! The shop specialises in boutique partyware and modern balloon styling. We still do classic decor, but we have chosen to focus on the modern goodies for now. I am the shop's fifth owner and have now owned it for nearly twelve of those twenty eight years. I have five employees. One is my newbie and is full-time. The other four are permanent part-time, and all have been with Born To Party for the long haul. We are a family-run store and our staff are like family, too. My dear Mum works with me, as well as helping in the shop, helping look after my little ones. She also does the admin side of things for me as it is not one of my hidden talents. She is my godsend! I couldn't do this without her or my other staff members for that matter, either." 

What do you believe has worked well for you to grow your business?

"We worked hard at getting the word out that we specialise in the more modern type of balloon decor that is sending Pinterest and Instagram crazy! We do expos, work on collaborations with some of Sydney's most loved stylists on styled shoots, and got involved with an influencer/blogger. We are currently working on a complete makeover. We've just launched our new logo. We are also having all of our stationary re-designed and our new sparkly website is currently under construction. I want our new website to take us to the next level, so watch this space! 

Alberto Falcone, CBA. Is On The Road For The Qualatex World Tour!

I love this display. Alberto created this for an exhibition trade stand for a baby clothing company. The use of his fabulous flowers is pure art and
injects so much colour and vibrancy to the display. 

Who cannot love the fabulous work of the very talented artist, Alberto Falcone, CBA? Alberto's balloon career started 20 years ago after attending an event organised by Balloon Express in Florence, Italy. For the first few years, like so many of us, Alberto's balloon career started out as a hobby. But after many requests for event decor, Alberto felt it was time to take his hobby more seriously!

Alberto loves to work with all Qualatex^® balloons, but at this time he favours Quick Link Balloons™. When I asked him why, he told me that he has so much to discover, each time he uses them it is a surprise for him.

The Qualatex® World Tour Has Started - Enter the Mystery Box Competition to win a free registration to WBC 2018!

The Qualatex^® World Tour—#QualatexWorldTour17—has officially started! With sixty-six stops scheduled across the globe, this is going to be one amazing worldwide Qualatex event! 

Tina Giunta, CBA and Chris Adamo, CBA kick off the Q-Tour in Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Australia and New Zealand opened up this amazing tour with classes being held in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide, Australia plus Auckland, New Zealand.  In Europe, the tour kicked off in Belgium, closely followed by Greece! The U.S. tour starts in Miami on the 30th of March! To find out all the stops and class details click HERE for the U.S. and HERE for the rest of the world.

Free Online Balloon Industry Design and Calculator Tool from Chris Adamo, CBA.

I am so excited to be able to share with you a fabulous new FREE Online Balloon Industry Design and Calculator from the fabulous Chris Adamo, CBA, of Balloons Online, in Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Chris Adamo, CBA

Chris is one of those guys who loves to find an easier solution. Last year he designed a fabulous tool - the confetti applicator. As we all know getting confetti to distribute evenly and not clump up inside a balloon is not an easy task. However, Chris solved this problem by designing a tool that is easy to make and gives perfect results every time! If you missed this post, click HERE. Chris is always keen to share a great tip or technique, and once again he is sharing another fabulous tool!

The Balloon Design and Calculator Tool is a project that Chris has been working on for some time. And after many months of work, he is ready to share this tool with the balloon industry!

There are four tools to work with: the Quick Link Designer, a Balloon Column Calculator, a Balloon Arch Calculator and a Ceiling Fill Calculator.

A Look at Colour Trends for Spring 2017

Design by Shannon Kilford of Born to Party, Mosman, NSW, Australia.
www.borntoparty.com.au

The Pantone® Colour of the Year 2017 is "Greenery." It is described by Pantone as "A refreshing and revitalising shade, Greenery is symbolic of new beginnings. Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature's greens revive, restore and renew."

Spring is in the Air!

It's almost springtime for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and I for one cannot wait! I think spring is one of my favourite seasons. I love the vibrancy of colours that show through even on grey days.

Along with spring, we have a number of great seasonal events, such as Mother's Day. The dates vary greatly around the world, but for many of us, we celebrate our Mother's Day in March. We also have Easter, which falls on April 16th this year.

This is the perfect time of year to create something exciting, bright, and fun to display in your store windows.












Here are a few ideas that will work really well for spring decor. I love the topiary-style to create decor. You can keep it simple by creating the 12-balloon cluster ball, or you can add like I have, some extra elements such as smaller balloon clusters, tissue tuffs, and even glitter balloons.

If you saw my post last month about how to make glitter balloons, you will love the vibrant lime green version that I have shown below. I have used these within the design to add a little sparkle!

If you would like to learn how to make these fabulous glitter balloons, click HERE

Fabulous New Balloons!

I hope by now most of you have received a copy of or have seen the new Qualatex^® Catalogue. If you haven't, you can easily view the online version by simply clicking on this LINK.

I know that you are all very busy, so I wanted to show you some of the new balloon collections that are featured in the new 2017 range, which I am sure that you will love as much as I do!

New Baby Balloons

I think that this fabulous new 24" "Baby Footprint" Deco Bubble is going to be a winner with customers! This wonderful footprint range is perfect for new babies and baby showers, too! 

NEW 24" Deco Bubble - "Baby Footprints" #49459

11" "Baby Footprints & Hearts" available in Rose and Robin's Egg Blue - check local catalogues for codes.

NEW 11" Baby Girl and Baby Boy Footprints & Hearts - only available in certain countries.

35" "Baby Feet Blue" #25851

35" "Baby Feet Pink" #25853

18" "Baby Boy LO(Feet)E" #25726

18" Baby Girl LO(Feet)E" #25746



Here is a display I made last month using the new Baby Footprint Deco Bubble and other coordinating balloons from the Footprint range.

U.S. Patent No. 6,782,675

Birthday

Wow, we have some truly fabulous new birthday Microfoil^® designs. Let's start with all things Smiley!

NEW 38" "Smiley Party Guy" #49360

NEW 18" "Birthday Smiley" #49057
Check out his fabulous reflective glasses.

NEW 9" Air-fill "Smile Face" #49411

NEW 9" Air-fill "Smiley Wink" #49428

NEW 9" Air-fill "Smiley Love" #49432

NEW 11" Smiley Star Bright Rainbow Assort. Please check local catalogues for code.





These lovely new 9" Air-fill Smiley Guys certainly know how to party!

Glitter Balloons!

Last month when I created a design for one of the Spring Fair window displays, I decided to make glitter balloons to complement the new, beautiful — in fact, probably one of my favourite ever Qualatex^® birthday Microfoil^® balloons — 18" "Birthday Pink & Gold Dots," Who cannot love this balloon!

#49164 18" "Birthday Pink & Gold Dots."

Design by Sue Bowler CBA

Here is the design that I created to show off this fabulous new balloon. I decided to have a go at creating a design using the organic style, which is so very popular at the moment. It was so much fun adding in the balloons, but it's important not to go too wild and still consider elements and principles of design, especially proportion, line, colour, and visual balance.

Luc Bertrand, CBA, shares his fabulous "Celebrating 100 Years" design - Step-by-Step.

Last week I published a blog showing the fabulous balloon decor created by Luc Bertrand, CBA, of wAw Balloons in Vichte, Belgium. Luc created a fabulous, unmissable focal point for the Pioneer Europe trade stand at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair that took place a few weeks ago in Germany.

Luc has very kindly offered to share with the readers of The Very Best Balloon Blog how he made his design — "Celebrating 100 Years."

If you own the fabulous AeröPole System^®, here is a great alternative way to use it! 

• Using five of the poles from the AeröPole System, connect these together to form a ring. 
• Start by covering the ring with a 5" Garland, with the 5" balloons inflated to 4.5".
• To fill the centre, use 6" Qualatex^® Quick Link Balloons™. Luc shows the plan clearly below.
• Once you have formed your Quick Link frame within the ring, you can add in your 5" duplets, inflated to 4.5".

Here are some additional photographs that should help you.




Step 1. 

Add the clusters to the frame. Luc also added two hooks that enabled him to secure the ring to the stand.

Pioneer® Balloon Company celebrates 100 years at Nuremberg International Toy Fair and Spring Fair, NEC, Birmingham.

"Celebrating 100 Years" by Luc Bertrand.

Visitors attending the Nuremberg International Toy Fair in Germany and Spring Fair, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, U.K., would be unable to miss the fact that Pioneer Balloon is celebrating it's 100th anniversary this year! 

Two of our top industry designers, Luc Bertrand, CBA, of wAw Balloons in Vichte, Belgium and Fiona Fisher, CBA, of Worldwide Balloon Decor in Portadown, Ireland, were given the brief to create stand decor "that would show the excitement of this amazing landmark, celebrating 100 years in business. Reflecting the present day modern trends of colourful confetti and the organic look."

"Celebration Cakes" by Fiona Fisher.

Both Luc and Fiona did an incredible job at each of the shows,  creating stand-out decor  everyone is talking about!

Pioneer Europe Trade Stand at Spring Fair, NEC, Birmingham.

Pioneer Europe Trade Stand at Spring Fair, NEC, Birmingham.

Here are a few more photographs showing some of the beautiful new Qualatex® balloons that were exhibited at each of these shows.

"Birthday Rainbow Confetti" - This awesome new range of balloons is vibrant and
fun, with Milestone Birthdays from 18 to 100!
Window display designed and created by Sue Bowler, CBA 

Roses are Red and Valentine's Day is nearly here!

Did you know that Valentine's is now being celebrated across a whole week and not just one day?  Valentine's Day this year is on a Sunday, so this is the perfect time to start promoting for week long deliveries! Each day has it's own theme...

Rose Day: 

Sunday, February 7th, 2021

"I Love You Red Rose"
18" - #24489
or 
 "Red Rose Bud"  
33" - #98696

We can make beautiful roses by twisting 160Q balloons. I love this twisted rose. It can be used simply as a display in a vase, or as an accent detail in a design!

Twisted Roses in Vase by Sue Bowler, CBA.

Teddy Bear holding Rose by Sue Bowler, CBA.

Here is a design that I made a few years ago of a teddy bear holding a single red rose.

As many of you know, I love to make Fantasy Flowers, and the rose is one of my favourite. To find out how to make a single red rose, watch the video below.

Fantasy Flower Rose by Sue Bowler, CBA.

So if Rose Day is the start of Valentine's week, what are all the other days?

International Balloon Art Festival India

I recently had the privilege to travel to New Delhi, India, to work with Fiona Fisher, CBA, of Worldwide Balloon Decor in Portadown, Ireland. Fiona was commissioned by Select Citywalk to build India’s largest balloon sculpture in one of the country's prestigious shopping malls. The Hot Air balloon sculpture took centre stage as part of the first International Balloon Art Festival that was being held from the 14th to 27th of January, 2017.

Fiona is no stranger to building large balloon sculptures and has won a number of industry awards for her incredible balloon sculptures. Fiona believes that competing at industry events, such as the World Balloon Convention gave her more confidence in her abilities, allowed her to move out of her comfort zone, and provide the opportunity to make things that she would not normally be able to build, primarily because of the space required and the costs involved. But she feels that the most invaluable thing was the ability to take fabulous photographs of her work that she uses to show prospective clients.

In  2013, Fiona was commissioned to build the most iconic ship in the world, The Titanic, on the 100^th anniversary of its sinking.

To find out more about this incredible sculpture, check out my post Building the Titanic - an interview with designer Fiona Fisher.

Day 1 - Framing.

It was agreed that it would be more exciting and enjoyable for the visitors and shoppers to watch the sculpture being built from start to finish. So on the first day, we marked out a large space in the centre of the shopping mall and started work on building the frame for the hot air balloon. 

Not only did Fiona have very detailed plans and drawings of the frame to be constructed, she also pre-built the entire frame in Ireland prior to the trip to ensure that everything worked as she expected! It also gave her the opportunity to work out the exact balloon sizes we would need to make for each section of the design.

By the end of day 1, Fiona with her team had built the upper half of the frame, ready for the first balloons to be added the next day.

Day 2 - Ballooning the frame.

Having built the frame, it was now time to add balloons. Using the new Premium Twin-Air Inflators, thousands of Qualatex^® balloons, and an eager team of helpers, we got started. 

Just seeing the first balloons on the frame really started to bring the balloon sculpture to life, and of course, it attracted a great deal of attention from the shoppers and mall staff. 

Some of our amazing helpers! 

It's official: "Organic Balloon Decor" is a trend that is here to stay.

So what exactly is organic balloon decor?  If you look at Pinterest and type "organic balloon decor," you will see an array of designs including Arches, Swags, and table runners that use different balloons inflated to a variety of sizes with accent elements such as tissues, flowers, and foliage. This style of decor breaks all the rules that we would normally strive for in terms of elegant, precise lines and consistent balloon sizes.

Wedding Arbour by Sue Bowler, CBA.

If I am honest, I don't believe that it's a totally new trend. It's like fashion; they come and they go. Looking back on some of the designs that we made when I was part of the Conwin design team, the organic look was definitely present then, but maybe not to the same extent as it is today.

I asked a few of my wonderful ballooning friends if they would give their interpretation of this style of balloon art.