The GEO® Balloon celebrates 25 years!

25 years ago, Pioneer Balloon Company was excited to launch a revolutionary new balloon called the GEO Donut^®! It was invented by Ronald E. Prater, an inventor who lived by the "never say never" philosophy! 

A balloon with a hole through the centre, it turned many heads in amazement at the Chicago Party Show that it was first exhibited at. It gave the balloon world something completely new to work with and many exciting decor opportunities.

These awesome balloons have been used to create so many wonderful designs, here are a few of my favourites!

Fiona Fisher, CBA uses both the 6" & 16" Geo Blossoms^® to create this fantastic Birthday "GEO Man". 

By using a lovely selection of vibrant coloured GEO Blossom balloons, Fiona has created a design that is fun and very sellable!

Russian Balloon Artists Olga Baranova, CBA and Olga Samoilova, CBA share their creative flair!

I recently attended the 15th Moscow Balloon Festival and I can honestly say that I was completely blown away by the incredible balloon art that was  exhibited at this event! 

One of this year's design teams was headed up by formidable artists Olga Baranova, CBA and Olga Samoilova, CBA. You might be familiar with these artists as they won first place Large Sculpture at the World Balloon Convention 2014, and then went on to win first place Master Sculpture at BACI 2014.



Olga Baranova CBA & Olga Samoilova, CBA run a very successful balloon business, Sonlnechny Veter (or Sun Veter which translates to "Sunny Wind") from their home city of Samara, Russia.

The Biggest Labyrinth in the World at the Millennium Jam 2015!

After a five-year break, the Millennium Jam is finally back! This year, the  Millennium Jam is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of IBS, International Balloon Services, Belgium.

It all began in June 2000, when IBS owners Johan Wijns and Leo Verlinden,  decided to organise their own event and the Millennium Jam was conceived! 

This event is sponsored exclusively by Qualatex^®, and returns to the Sunparks Resort, Mol, Belgium.

A little last-minute inspiration for Halloween!

For many party retailers, Halloween is their biggest and often their most profitable seasonal celebration.  So let's make sure we all take this opportunity to maximise our own sales potential!

Hopefully by now you will have decided on a range of "To Go" designs to sell over the Halloween period. Halloween falls on a Saturday, so be prepared for an exceptionally busy day!

If you have a shop or store, do you have an inspiring window display? Window displays are such an important part of any retail business! Every display needs to tell a story and make passers-by stop, look and take notice. Most importantly, it needs to create a desire to buy!

This Ralph Lauren window shows the fun and excitement of Halloween but still shows off an eye-catching range of children's clothing suitable for the time of year!

 

Tassel It!

It's amazing how trends arrive on the scene! For the past few years we have been seeing the growing trend of big balloons with festoons of tassels flowing from them. You only have to search Balloons with Tassels on Pinterest to see some truly amazing photographs! 

For me there is something quite retro or vintage about this look, and although many of the photographs are staged to capture that perfect shot, I certainly think that they are stunning!

Tassels can be made from a number of different materials; tissue paper, crepe paper, plastic table covers, foil, cellophane or a combination of any of these!

I love a challenge and decided that it would be great to learn how to make these very popular balloon appendages!

We usually see tassels on big balloons, so I decided that I would test out tassels on a range of other balloons!

With my daughter's birthday celebrations looming, there was the rare possibility of being able to celebrate outside in our garden (our English weather is not always very predictable). I decided to decorate our tree with tassel laden air-filled Bubble Balloons! The reason that I used Bubbles was because wanted to prevent the beautiful Big Polka Dot balloons inside from oxidising, plus I love Qualatex^® Bubble Balloons!

I was absolutely delighted with the results! By simply attaching a few balloons to our tree (hanging on an invisible nylon thread), it really injected a blast of colour and a sense of fun and celebration to our garden! The tassels really made a huge impact and moved around with the breeze! The tassels on these balloons are made from crepe paper which I found really easy to work with.

Qualatex Bubbles with Tassels in Sue's Garden
U.S. Patent No. 6,782,675

The Importance of Continuing Education

I cannot believe that we are already ⅔ of the way through 2015! What an exciting year it has been for education in the balloon world and there is still more to come!

1st Place Large Sculpture
 2014 Moscow Balloon Festival
Alexander Solomatin CBA

For me, I am getting ready to head off to Russia for the 15th International Moscow Balloon Festival. The first Moscow Balloon Festival was held in 2000, and my first trip to this event was in 2002. I feel very fortunate to have seen how balloon artists in Russia have developed and grown within this relatively short time, and I am very excited to see what incredible designs and sculptures await me later this week! 

Being a talented balloon artist and running a successful balloon business does not just happen. It takes a great deal of commitment and investment to ongoing education - and not just learning new ballooning skills, but business skills as well. That was almost my downfall.  Fortunately with help from the Qualatex Balloon Network and attending my first balloon convention, I was able to profitably operate my balloon company.

Personalising Balloons Using a Die-Cutting Machine: Part 3

I often here people saying how difficult it is to compete against the "big boys." My answer to that is - don't be like the "big boys!" Be yourself and offer something exciting and unique! 

Yes, I cannot deny that there are people out there who will always go for the cheapest option, but that is not true of everyone. There are people who want something a little different, special and unique and are prepared to pay a premium for that service!

For this 3rd and final part of this series, I would like to look at a few other ways that we can use our die-cutting machines for our designs and also within our businesses.

When we talk about personalising balloons, it does not always have to be sticking letters or shapes on to a balloon. There are other things that we can do with our machines. 

Cutting Card Stock

If you like to be a little bit creative and are not adverse to making things yourself, then you will probably enjoy creating your own personalised ribbons too! This was one of the reason why I invested in my machine a few years ago!

I had a job where I needed to recreate a balloon (10 actually) that could be used as part of a promotion to celebrate Candy Crush Saga's 1st Anniversary. This is probably one of those occasions when you could easily say "I'm afraid that we don't sell Candy Crush Saga balloons," and lose a sale! 

I decided that I would offer the client the best alternative that I could, and that was to create my own Candy Crush Saga balloons along with hand-made Candy Crush Saga ribbons!

(This job was on behalf of Candy Crush Saga and therefore did not infringe any copyright laws).