As many of you have seen, I created a Baby Bear display at the recent Spring Fair. This new 31" Baby Bear Microfoil™ balloon is so cute and appealing, and perfect to recreate this charming 'Balloon Buddy' design for New Babies, Birthdays and even Mother's Day displays!
Material List
4 x 7" Chrome Rose Gold
1 x 18" Rose Gold Round Foil Balloon
2 x 16" Blush (1 x body 1 x sand weight)
6 x 5" Pearl Peach
6 x 5" Pink (the pink goes inside the Pearl Peach)
2 x 350Q Blush
1 x 260Q for tying
1 x 31" Baby Bear Special Shape Microfoil
Stretchy Balloon Tape
I have also added a prepared Job Cost Form to this post: all you need to do is add in the values and you will be able to quickly calculate a profitable selling price!
To learn how to create this design, check out Sue's video below.
Sue's Window Display at Spring Fair 2023
I recently made a Panda Bear version, which is also very cute!
Panda Bear with Pastel Rainbow
I hope that you enjoy making these and maybe even adding your own personal touch to the design - I look forward to seeing them!
With Mother's Day, Easter, International Woman's Day, plenty of spring birthdays and fresh new babies over the coming months, this is the perfect time for balloon businesses to boost their marketing and sales opportunities with a bright and fresh spring theme decor and delivery ideas!
Spring is actually my favourite time of year; the blossoming trees and early flowers pushing through the earth holds so much charm for me. I don't know about you, but I definitely feel more energised and ready to take on new projects and challenges in the Spring!
International Woman's Day
International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.
I have read much about International Woman's Day, and feel that it is important as a female entrepreneur and business owner to stand loud and proud and use this day to create greater awareness of women in business. Here is a great post, titled 6 International Woman's day social post ideas 2023, that is packed with some great ideas that you could implement!
Standing for Women!
Celebrate International Women’s Day with this impressive display.
Designer name: Alexander Solomatin, CBA, Moscow, Russia, Dmitry Novikov, CBA, Moscow, Russia
Mother’s Day is a holiday to honour and celebrate mothers (and any other woman that has taken on a 'mother' role in a person's life) and is celebrated in countries worldwide. The holiday originated in the United States in its modern form, and is observed on the second Sunday in May. Many other countries also celebrate the holiday on this date, while some celebrate at different times of the year. In the UK, we celebrate it on the 4th Sunday of lent, which means that the date varies each year according to Easter. This year we will be celebrating Mother's Day on the 19th March!
When it comes to finding the perfect gift for Mother's Day, most people leave it to the last minute (much like Valentine's Day). It is human nature to delay until the date creeps up, then frantically rush around looking for gift ideas at the final hour.
This is why it’s a great idea to start promoting Mother’s Day at least 3-4 weeks before the special day. It gives you time to remind shoppers that the big day is coming and helps them start thinking about what to buy.
Qualatex has a comprehensive range of fabulous marketing assets available to use for social media posts for Facebook, Stories and Instagram plus Facebook banners too! Click HERE for direct access or go to https://us.qualatex.com/en-us/inspiration/marketing-materials/
Rain, Sun, Rainbow, Repeat…
This dreamy rainbow design is sure to make her day.
Easter has become the new hot holiday for stuffing balloons! Like Elf on the Shelf at Christmas, it is now popular to give a child a stuffing balloon filled with Easter Treats and topped with a Floppy Eared Bunny or Baby Chick balloon!
And finally, Babies and Birthdays featuring the newest Qualatex balloons!
Flutter Into Spring
This lovely design is perfect for a bright and airy spring birthday!
Designer name: Eve Antonello, CBA, Pioneer Balloon Company, Wichita, KS, USA
Cuddle them Close This cuddly and lovely deliverable will charm every new parent. Designer name: Cam Woody, CBA, Pioneer Balloon Company, Wichita, KS, USA
I dream of baby… Float away to baby land with this sweet ‘new baby’ deliverable. Designer name: Cam Woody, CBA, Pioneer Balloon Company, Wichita, KS, USA
I am certainly inspired by all the new Qualatex balloons and excited to start creating! I look forward to seeing all your fabulous designs appearing on socials soon!
I would like to start this post with a little farm barn trivia! Do you know why farm barns are always red?
The practice actually started in the late 18th century with New England farmers applying a protective varnish to barn surfaces. The varnish usually contained some mixture of linseed oil, lime, or iron oxide, which, under the sun, would then turn to the red ochre hue that we have become so familiar with.
Children absolutely adore farm animals, and creating farm theme party decor is a colourful and fun way to appeal to children of all ages!
Earlier this month, I created a range of window displays to showcase some of the new Qualatex balloons that were launched at the Spring Fair at the NEC Birmingham. When I saw the new Birthday-Farm range I knew exactly what I wanted to make and immediately started designing a Red Barn!
To design the barn, I used Chris Adamo's Balloon Pro.co Design Tool. If you have never used this tool I strongly recommend that you have a little play using the 7 day free trial. I absolutely love it and use it on a regular basis, it helps me to work out what style of wall that I need to make to ensure that I get the end result I am looking for. This definitely makes it very worth the minimal monthly fee!
The barn is made using the Alternate Size Pack technique, with my balloons sized at 3" and 4". The Bran is built in columns, and then linked together using the "paperclip and elastic band" method. To give the barn greater stability, I added in two poles and bases and also secured it to the top of the window using 50lb monofilament line just in case someone decided to try and move it - you will be amazed what people will do to get a good photo!
The window display design was designed around this new 18" Birthday Barn balloon. Look at this balloon and now look at my window display to see the similarities!
18" Birthday Barn #26549
You will see that in my window display, I have added in other elements such as the mini Pig and Cow sculptures and some of the new 14" Retro Daisies to bring this window to life and to re-create the scene from the balloon as accurately as possible.
Here are all the other new products in this range:
If you are unsure how to make the Alternate Size Balloon Wall, check out my previous post: Balloon Wall Part 2
Creating something fun and new is always very rewarding! Though I am very familiar with creating balloon walls. this Red Barn presented new challenges for me, especially when creating the sloping roof!
Last week I attended the Spring Fair at the NEC Birmingham. Spring Fair is an annual B2B trade show where businesses go, and that includes many of the major high street and online retailers as well as small independent stores, to buy new and inspiring products to sell in their stores. The fair is not only balloon and party related, it covers an abundance of products from fashion to jewellery, cookware and thousands of other products! The next show will be from the 4th -7th February 2024, so don't forget to mark it in your diary if you are UK based!
So what does this have to do with Cupcakes? Each year, for more years than I can actually remember, I have been given the amazing opportunity to create balloon designs for Qualatex Europe's windows at this trade event! Each year I am tasked with creating and designing displays that feature new balloons and products from scratch.
Balloon Cupcake by Sue Bowler, inspired by Dante Longhi
For my first window, I was asked to feature the new Birthday Ombrè Cupcake, a fabulous new 31" Microfoil balloon.
My Inspiration
Before I even touch a balloon, I start by creating a mood board; this helps me to get an idea of the balloons that I should feature within my displays. I use Canva to create my mood boards. I simply import the balloons and any images that I want to use to help me with my display. This is also a great way to show your clients your ideas when you are still in the development stages of your designs.
Cupcake Window Display Mood-Board
I knew that Dante Longhi of Dream Factory Balloons in New Jersey, USA had designed and made balloon cupcakes, so this was my first stop, to find out the technique! Fortunately for me, Dante had filmed himself making the cupcake for the QCorner convention last year.
To learn how to make Dante's 3-D Cupcake Sculpture watch the video below!
Watching this video was invaluable as it helped me understand the technique that I needed to use. My next challenge was then to work out the balloon sizing, as my cupcake was much smaller than Dante's! I surprisingly worked out the sizing quite quickly and after only a few attempts my cupcake began to take shape! I cannot tell you how much fun I had creating this design and seeing it grow into the final result!
Here are photos from each step of building the cupcake:
Base Layer
View looking into the Cupcake
Second Layer Added
Two Layers of Frosting added
And the final balloon added to fill in the top
Here is the final result and my window display!
I did actually make some changes to Dante's original design. I only use four rings, whereas Dante uses five. This helped me to reduce the size and height of the design to ensure that it was in proportion to the window space that I had available.
Balloon Cupcake by Sue Bowler - inspired by Dante Longhi
Window Display created by Sue Bowler for Qualatex Europe at Spring Fair 2023
If you are interested to learn how to make the smaller cupcake design, email me sue@bapiaonline.com and I will happily share the sizing, just follow the same construction techniques as shown in Dante's video above!
A huge thank you to Dante for his incredible talent and for sharing this design!
I will be sharing my other window displays over the next few weeks!
With the continually soaring cost of helium and its lack of availability, finding air-filled solutions is extremely important to the ballooning community.
Creating designs using the PremiumConwinDecoCup™ + DecoCup™ is definitely the way forward, and today, I would like to share two videos with you featuring those accessories.
It's all about the Base!
In the first video, I will demonstrate how to create the central support for your designs. I have two methods:
1. Using a tile base with 2x DecoCups and 1x DecoCup
2. Using a sand-weight with 2x DecoCups and 1 x DecoCup
I show two different glue options to secure the DecoCups to the tile base.
If like me, you have unused Lomey Adhesive in your toolbox.
This works very well for sticking a DecoCup to a ceramic tile base,
but it can take up to 24 hours to dry! I recommend using packing tape to hold the cup in place on the tile during the drying process.
Gorilla Glue works extremely well when you need to stick two items together that are made from different material. The down-side is the drying time as it can take up to 24 hours for the glue to bond successfully.
Sand-Weights - using kiln-dried sand
A sand-weight makes the perfect weight for a base, unlike a water-weight, a sand-weight can be moulded into shape and flattened and is very stable, it is also quick and inexpensive to make.
Check out the video below to see how easy it is to make the base element for our air-filled designs.
"With Love" - air-filled Hat Box Valentine's arrangement
In the second video, I show you how to create this relatively easy design that would be perfect for Valentine's Day or by simply changing the balloons and colours it would be suitable for any occasion!
For this design I have used:
Hat Box
7" Qualatex Gold Chrome
5" Wild Berry
260Q Gold Chrome
260Q Wild Berry
260Q Rose
18" Love Gold #16766
Pink Organza Ribbon
Uglu Dashes
Check out the video below to find out step-by-step how to make this great design.
I have been creating air-filled balloon designs for many years now, and I have come to have a preference to air-filled over helium-filled designs. I feel that an air-filled design allows for more creativity and detail, and I prefer the end results!
Here are a few more of my air-filled arrangements, some using Deco Cups and Sticks.
The Happy Birthday foil in this design is actually helium-filled, but it could easily be replaced with an air-filled version on a Deco Cup & Stick
I hope that this post has been helpful and given you a little inspiration!
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