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!