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.

The Qualatex® Event Slovenia makes a big splash!

Alberto Falcone, CBA. 

Late last year I had the pleasure of teaching at the Qualatex Event Slovenia. I love to teach at this event, not only because it's hosted in a spa hotel, which makes for a fun and a very lively welcome party, but also because I get to meet up with so many of my wonderful ballooning friends from around the world. This year was no exception. We had more than 150 delegates from more than 23 different countries.


For me, the event started with nine delegates from across Europe and Israel taking their CBA exam. The room was filled with anxiety and nerves at the beginning of the exam as always, but after a few short minutes everyone relaxed and did their best work. And of course they were awesome, with everyone passing!
A huge congratulations to:

Nikita Fric, CBA.

Roland Repaski, CBA.

Maayan Guri, CBA.

Zsuzsanna Ernst, CBA.

Erika Zeke, CBA.

Itai Yekoutiely, CBA.

Mike Hurst, CBA.

Iren Ille, CBA.

Barbara Tocaj, CBA.

Welcome to the CBA family!

CBA exam in progress.

CBA exam designs.

Whilst we were working away on the CBA exam, others were busily working hard to make the decor for the opening "Pool Party" headed by Colin Stewart, CBA, of SBB World Class BalloonART in Alliston, Ontario, Canada. 

Decor in the making.

Colin leading the decor on the move.

Entrance decor.

Ceiling palm tree's with fun monkeys.

Here are a few photographs from the party. It looks like those monkeys got everywhere!

So what can we expect in 2017?

Firstly, I would like to wish you all a very happy New Year! 

New Year's design by Jose Luthman, CBA and Sue Bowler, CBA

2016, saw the fourth fabulous World Balloon Convention and wow, what an amazing convention that was! More than 900 delegates representing 58 countries came together in the fabulous city of New Orleans. The World Balloon Convention is a truly fantastic event offering so many wonderful opportunities to learn new skills and great techniques, share ideas, and make some amazing new friends and contacts. Most importantly, it gives the biggest injection of passion, energy, and excitement that lasts many months after the event and the opportunity to bring new life to your business. Although it might seem early, you have more than a year to start saving for WBC 2018, which will take place March 14 -18 in San Diego, CA, USA. 

WBC - "Mardi Gras" Costume Party
Photograph by Jani Blocker.

So what can we expect in 2017? There will be many exciting opportunities to attend events, classes, and training. I believe that we never stop learning. There is always a great new technique or marketing tip that helps us to significantly increase sales! Even after 26 years, I can honestly say that I am still learning and truly want to learn more! It's very easy to believe that we know enough, but to help us to stand out against our competitors and make us the best, we should make training and learning a big part of our development agenda. Training is not just about learning how to make new designs. It helps you to understand how to price your work for profit and offers some vital business skills, too.

For many, traveling to events can be difficult. With that in mind, the 2017 Qualatex World Tour will be on the road and visiting many locations around the world! This will give balloons artists many opportunities to attend some truly fantastic classes with an all-star line up of instructors teaching an action-packed day filled with fabulous designs, business skills, and much more! To find out all the locations and dates click HERE

Spotlight interview with self confessed 'Education Junky,' Tina Giunta, CBA, of Shivoo Balloons, Melbourne, Australia

Tina Giunta

Tina first discovered balloons 16 years ago when she saw balloon creations in the window of her local party store.  This inspired her to make her own centrepieces for her son's Christening. From this event, Tina was asked to decorate parties for friends, and before long she found herself decorating almost every weekend!

So what attracted Tina into running her own balloon business?

"I only really registered a business name so that I could buy at wholesale prices. It really was just a hobby for me. But as I mixed in circles with other young families, surrounded by young mums who were very supportive and encouraging while word of mouth kept spreading, I found myself just falling into running a business."



How did you learn to work with Balloons?

"In the beginning, I would study my Balloon Images Magazine and the Qualatex^® catalogue, and I would just try and work things out. My work was quite basic back then and I found that this was enough. But as my hunger to try new products and more complicated designs grew, I looked into attending classes. My local supplier told me about the Australian Balloon Convention that was being held about an hour away from my home, so I decided to attend —and well, obviously I got hooked!"

Can you tell us a little bit about your business?

"My work space is a warehouse with an office. It's 100 square feet with an extra 50 square feet of mezzanine. We are not a retail store so we don't open to the public, but on occasions people will make appointments to discuss what they want. My website has hundreds of photographs on it, so most people prefer to just email or call.

I have one part-time employee and use contractors for the bigger jobs. My contractors are people that I have built a very good relationship with over the years. They run their own businesses, so they are experienced and have good working ethics."

Beautiful confetti balloons by Tina Giunta

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting a balloon business?

" Learn your craft is your number one priority! Attend classes and conventions as much as possible so that you feel confident in what you offer your customers. When you believe in your work and you genuinely love what you do, people will see that in you! They feel your excitement towards their event and it makes them feel special. Once you have their trust, it is so much easier to get them to part with their hard-earned money!"

 What industry events have you attended during your career?

"I am an education junky! I attended every class and convention humanly possible in Australia and three World Balloon Conventions, one of which I attended as a scholarship recipient and the most recent as an instructor. 

1st Place Medium Balloon Sculpture.

Elegant Air-Filled Hanging Decor by Luc Bertrand.

The fabulous Luc Bertrand, CBA, of Waw Balloons in Vichte, Belgium, shares another one of his truly elegant designs that would work amazingly well for a New Year's celebrations. I also believe that this design would be fabulous for a store window display or decor for elegant black tie events.

Luc is a master at using the Qualatex^® Number Shapes to create elegant air-filled decor, and this beautiful design is no exception! As soon as I saw this design, I thought of the Fleur de Lys shape and saw how incredible, unique designs can be created using Luc's technique.

Materials required: Choose colours to suit your occasion or event.

2 - Number Six or Number Nine Microfoil^® Number Shape balloons.

3 -13" Taper Microfoil balloons.

1 - 27" Taper Microfoil balloon.

11 - 5" Latex balloons.

1 - 260Q to tie all the elements together.

Click-Click™ Stretchy Balloon Tape^®.

Heat Sealer.

Hand-pump or an electric air inflator suitable for inflating foil balloons.

Step 1.

• Air inflate the two number balloons and secure together using the stretchy tape.
• Air inflate all the Taper balloons. The 13" Taper balloons will require heat sealing. If you are not familiar with heat sealing, check out my post: "Heat Sealing Microfoil Balloons and Turn those Little Balloons into Big Profit Earners."
• Tie one of the 13" Tapers balloons to the 27" Taper balloons and tie the other two 13" Taper balloons together.  Attach an un inflated 260Q balloon at the joint so that this can be used to connect everything together.

Step 2.

• Connect the Tapers to the Number shape balloons as shown below using the 260Q. 
• Air inflate  two 5-balloon clusters using the sizes as indicated below and with one of the clusters add a centre balloo. This cluster will be positioned at the front of the design, and the other to the back of the design. Now connect the clusters as shown below, once again using the 260Q. 

This is a photograph of Luc's current window display for New Year's! I love the vibrant colours and the use of the "Celebration Pink Bubbly Wine" balloon with the "New Year Confetti Dots" balloon along with the number one and seven to make 2017! 

A huge thank you to Luc, who every year never fails to share a wonderful design with us for either Christmas or New Year's! 

Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com

Tip and Tricks of the Trade - Part 4 Controlling a Bubble Balloon® for vinyl application

20" Deco Bubble, with 16" White latex inside.
U.S. Patent No. 6,782,675

I recently taught a class showing different ideas and techniques working with Qualatex^® Bubble Balloons and turned to Chris Adamo, CBA, of Balloons Online, in Sydney, NSW, Australia, some weeks before I was due to teach the class to ask him what technique he used to "control" a helium-filled Bubble Balloon whilst adding vinyl and how to ensure that the text or image was centrally positioned. Chris has already showed us how to add vinyl transfer to flat foil balloons along with how to make confetti filled balloons in "Tips and Tricks of the Trade- Part 1," and I thought that he would be the perfect person to ask!

Chris confessed that he had not worked out a specific way, but would be very happy to work on it! We discussed a few ideas and Chris went away to play!

Within no time, Chris had devised the perfect solution —a cardboard jig, something that we can all make very easily from a cardboard box and a few un-inflated 260Q balloons! 
The video clip below gives you full instructions on how to make your Bubble Balloon into a solid colour Bubble, how to make the Bubble jig, and how to add the vinyl to the Bubble. For all you vinyl users, this is the coolest tip ever!

When I arrived at the Slovenia Qualatex Event, my first job was to make my jig, as I knew that I would need it to help me to prepare for my class. In fact, I made two: one for 20" Bubbles and the other for 24" Bubbles. They did not look pretty. Sadly, I did not take any pictures, but my goodness, it really made a huge difference when working with my Bubbles! When I showed it to the delegates in the class, they all thought that it was a wonderful, tool! 

So a huge thank you to Chris, who once again shares an amazing, time-saving, and extremely useful tool with the balloon world!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com

Fantasy Rose working with Heart Shape Balloons

Fantasy flowers can be made in a number of different ways. For many flower designs, we use floral wire inserted inside latex balloons to form petal shapes. However, when making the rose using the heart shaped latex balloons, we use very little wire.

I first saw this type of Fantasy Rose a number of years ago when Jodie White, CBA, created these stunning designs for a photo shoot that we were both working on. She used 6" hearts to create the rose for this beautiful "Mother of the Bride" corsage.

Mother of the Bride corsage by Jodie White, CBA

This is another beautiful design by Jodie. This time, she created a full bridal bouquet using a variety of fantasy techniques, and this occasion she used the 11" latex heart to make bigger roses.

Bridal bouquet by Jodie White, CBA

A few years ago I taught myself how to make this delicate little rose and even attempted to make a small bridal bouquet which I used in a display at Spring Fair a few years ago. 

To make the rose you will need the following items:

• 6" Qualatex® Heart latex balloons ‑ there are no specific number of balloons for each flower, but I would allow approximately 15
• Elmer's^® Rubber Cement
• 1.2mm/18 gauge wire - only 1 wire per flower required.
• Floral binding wire
• Floral Tape

Check out my step-by-step video to see how to create this lovely little rose.

To find out how to make other types of fantasy flowers check out my early post:
The Art of Fantasy Flowers.

Have fun and happy ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com