Cupcake Theme Balloon Decoration Ideas!

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! 

Happy Ballooning! 

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me @suebowler

The Importance of Principles and Elements of Design in Balloon Art!

Earlier this week, I was given the honour of taking part in the Q Corner Convention as part of the Design Panel discussion group alongside Tope Abulude, Cam Woody and Aleks and Nelly Hernández. 

The first question we were asked as a group was "Which of the Principles and Elements of Design is the most important to a creation and why?" 

This got me to thinking... how many balloon artists actually consider the basic principles and elements of design when making their decor? Is this something that many of us naturally do, or should it be considered more frequently?

So, let me put this to you in a different way - have you ever made a design or decor that does not look right, and while you know something is not quite right, you can't quite put your finger on it? Knowing the basics can prevent this from happening!  

So what are the Principles and Elements of Design?

Creating the 'perfect' design is not something that just happens, at least not for most of us anyway!  There are a number of factors that can help to make a design 'perfect,' so let's take a look at what those factors are!

Principles of Design: The basic principles of design include words such as unity, proportion and scale, balance, rhythm and harmony.

Elements of Design: These are the physical make-up of the design. You can touch or see the elements of design. These include colour, line, shape and texture.

By applying the principles to the elements of design, it will bring them together into one design. How you apply these principles determines how successful a design may be!

Principles of Design

Sculptured Balloon Column 
By Sue Bowler

Proportion

Proportion is one of the easier design principles to understand. Simply put, it is the size of each elements in relation to one another. Proportion signals what is important in a design and what is not. In he typical design, larger elements are more important than the smaller elements. 

Scale

Scale refers to the size of the overall design in relationship to its surroundings! If a design is too big in its space, it will look overpowering. Too small small, it will look insignificant.

Balance

Balance is the visual and physical stability of a design. The visual stability of a design refers to how the mechanical stability of the design, and whether or not it will easily fall. A design with symmetrical balance should have the same amount of visual weight on both sides. Designs with asymmetrical balance will not mirror the design on both sides.

Remember that darker colours will have more visual weight than lighter colours; therefore, the darker colours belong at the base of your design since they appear heavier.

Rhythm

The spaces between repeating elements can cause a sense of rhythm to form, similar to the way the space between notes in a musical composition creates a rhythm. There are five basic types of visual rhythm that designers can create: random, regular, alternating, flowing, and progressive.

Movement

Movement refers to the way the eye travels over a design. One essential element should lead the eye to the next element and so on. This is achieved through positioning; the eye naturally falls on certain areas of a design first.

Table Centrepiece Design
By Sue Bowler

Unity

Unity refers to how well the elements of design work together. Visual elements should have clear relationships with each other in a design. Unity also helps ensure concepts are communicated in a clear, cohesive fashion. Designs with good unity also appear to be more organised and of higher quality than designs with poor unity.

Elements of Design

Colour

To effectively use colour in design, it is important to understand what it is and how it works. Colours are visually perceived as advancing or receding. Warm colours such as red, orange, and yellow advance, or appear closer.

Cool colours such as green, blue and violet recede or appear farther away. When making a design, the goal is to create colour harmony. The four most basic colour harmonies are monochromatic, analogous, complimentary, and triadic. 

The centrepiece design shown is using a monochromatic colour harmony. A monochromatic colour harmony consists of one hue (colour) and its tints, tones and shades.

Texture

Texture relates to the surface quality of each component of a design. Contrasting or opposite textures should be used (e.g. rough and smooth, shiny and matte) to create impact within a design. While balloons themselves have limited textural differences, there are many other ways to create texture within your designs. The texture of latex balloons is smooth and soft, but by adding elements such as tulle, ribbon, fabric, flowers, or feathers, you can create contrasting texture and a greater visual impact.

The design shown has a number of varying textures, such as shiny confetti inside the Deco Bubble and the addition of greenery and flowers within the design - all of these elements adds texture to the design.

Space

Space is the open area, or void around each element of a design. Space allows each element to stand apart so it can be seen and appreciated while still giving the impression of unity. Without space, the eye can have difficulty finding the focal area or rhythm of a design. There are two types of space: positive and negative space. Positive space refers to the shape of an object or the area that is being utilised by balloons and other decorative elements. Negative space is the empty space surrounding the design components.

Line

A line is the described path in a design that the eye should clearly follow. The line provides the framework or outline of an arrangement, as well as a visual path to follow. 

A design can have one line or a combination of lines with one being dominant. 

Lines can be: 

Vertical - creating drama

Horizontal - representing tranquility

Diagonal - expressing uncertainty 

Curved - reflecting grace

Form

Form refers to the shape of each element in a design. Form can be divided into three separate categories. 

Round: A round composition is one of the most common shapes. It is designed to be viewed from all sides. Round designs are often used for centrepieces on circular tables.

Triangle: Triangular designs are usually viewed from only one side, so they are often used as a focal design on a pedestal or banqueting table.

Oblong: Oblong shapes are low, long and horizontal and usually symmetrically balanced. This style of design is especially suitable for a rectangular space.

And finally, Harmony

Harmony is the physical compatibility of the elements within your design. In other words, it is how the Design Elements (form, line, space, texture, and colour) relate to one another in an agreeable way. Creating harmony within a design also helps bring about unity. Every element within a design should coordinate and complement each other. Harmony. is created when all the Elements of Design are applied successfully! 

So in conclusion, to make the perfect design you need to consider and apply the Principles and Elements of design and if for any reason you are unhappy about a design that you have made think about why and what you can or could have done to make it better! 

I will be 100% honest, it took me quite some time to fully understand and have the ability to apply the principles of elements of design to my own work, and I can promise that I do not always get it right! But having an understanding can really help you to master design and become an even better balloon artist! 

Thank you for reading this post and I hope that it has helped!

Happy Ballooning! 

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me @suebowler

How Can I Find Training Courses as someone who is new to the Balloon Industry?

If you were to ask any seasoned professional what they would do differently if they started their balloon business again, you would find that most of them would have taken up training sooner. Balloon artistry is a creative skill, and there is so much more to it than you many think... but maybe you have already started to find that out?

Training Instructor TY Wong of Colour Life, Hong Kong

I know of a number of very successful balloon businesses who started their ballooning journeys in recent years offering only organic décor. They in their own words were 'self-taught'; however, as their businesses grew, so did their clients requests and it became evident that they needed to learn the true foundations of balloon artistry: Classic Balloon Decor. 

Rainbow Arch and Decor by Sue Bowler

Classic Balloon Decor is the foundation of balloon decorating. Foundations can be found in the early defining work of a discipline, and balloon decorating started with balloon garland arches, swags, columns and 'string of pearl' (SOP) arches.

Classic Balloon Decor is the starting blocks for ballooning, and almost all balloon artists/decorators start here! It's as basic as learning how to inflate balloons to a specific size, tying a duplet, twisting balloons into clusters as well as the art of adding balloons to line or framework! Once a decorator has these mastered, they can move onto more challenging projects! 

Decor by Sue Bowler

Classic Balloon Decor can be used in so many ways and for so many different types of events, including weddings, corporate decor or shopping malls; think large spaces where balloons can be used on large scale! It's not just about learning Class Balloon Decor techniques, it's also having a good understand of the elements and principles of design.

Creating the 'perfect' design is not something that just happens automatically, at least not for most of us anyway! There are a number of factors that make a 'perfect design', so let's take a look at what those factors are!

Elements of Design:

These are parts that make up the design, and you can either touch or see the elements of design. These include colour, line, shape and texture.

Principles of Design: 

The basic principles of design include unity, scale and proportion, balance, rhythm and harmony.

Applying these principles to the elements of a design brings them together into one cohesive idea. How you apply these principles determines how successful a design may be!

So you may be wondering ,how can you learn about these and where can you find training courses, especially during the pandemic?

It is true to say that the pandemic has definitely thrown a spanner into the works when it comes to face-to-face training courses! However, finding good training in many countries has always been difficult even during normal times. 

During the past few months, when many countries have been in lockdown, Qualatex has worked hard to bring training to the world-wide community in the form of webinars. To-date, there has been 10 webinars covering a wide variety of topics.

For anyone new to the balloon business, I would like to recommend: 

"Cooking with Cam & Eve - Ingredients for Success Part 1 - Qualatex Latex" as well as "Cooking with Cam & Eve - Ingredients for Success Part 2 - Qualatex Microfoil and Bubble Balloons."

I can even offer you a coupon code that will give you $5.00 off each of these courses!

GoMrQ

Both of these videos in addition to other fabulous online classes from industry leading instructors are available to purchase and download from Qualatex Online Education at Vimeo - Click HERE for a direct link or go to https://vimeo.com/qualatex

Can you learn from YouTube?

There are so many great tutorials available on YouTube, but for every quality video there is one that gives bad or ill-informed information You can easily learn really poor skills and techniques which is not a great way to start your ballooning career. I have used YouTube myself to learn how to make different styles of bows, and other non-balloon related techniques, so it's definitely not all bad. Just use discretion when browsing YouTube!

My advice to you would be to seek balloon artists whose styles and designs you like, and follow them on their Facebook and Instagram pages. If they have videos, which many do, then those are the ones that you want to watch.

Qualatex has their own YouTube channel - Q Corner, and I would certainly recommend that you check it out, as it is packed with many great tutorials and training videos - click HERE for a direct link or visit https://www.youtube.com/c/QCornerShow/videos

If you would like to learn more about the elements and principles of design, and how it will help you with your balloon designs, I have written a number of blog posts that will help you greatly:

Part 1: Beginners Guide to the Elements and Principles of Design - Colour

Part 2: The Beginners Guide to Elements & Principles of Design - Line

Part 3: The Beginners Guide to the Elements & Principles of Design - Texture & Balance

Part 4: Beginners Guide to the Elements & Principles of Design - Rhythm

Part 5: Beginners Guide to the Elements & Principles of Design - Proportion and Scale

Part 6: Beginners Guide to the Elements and Principles of Design - Unity & Harmony

And of course, don't forget to tune in to Happy Hour with Cam & Eve, you can find that on Mr Q's Facebook page LIVE every alternate Tuesday at 1pm CST. You will need to check your international clocks if you want to watch it live, or you can catch-up afterwards as they are all available to watch, all you have to do is visit Mr. Q Facebook Page and click on videos! 

I hope that this is helpful to you, and keep checking The Very Best Balloon Blog as it too is packed with great information and so many helpful resources! 

Happy Ballooning! 

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me @suebowler

Part 1. Baby Moon Design - Step-by-Step Tutorial - How to Make the Frame

The frame is probably the most important part of any frame based design. Get it right, and your design will look amazing! But getting wrong - out of proportion, or the wrong shape, can lead to you being disappointed with the end result.

Frame Material and Equipment List:

• 1 x 3m length - 6mm or 1/4" Aluminium Rod 
• Pipe or Bolt Cutters
• Gaffa or Duct Tape
• Pipe Bender if you have one but it's not essential
• NOT (Lamp) Base - this is an inexpensive IKEA (lamp) product that many balloon professionals use to support designs.
• NOT (Lamp) Pole x 1 (If you don't have access to an IKEA NOT Base and Pole you will need to find a good, similar alternative.) 
• White Floral Quick Drying Spray Paint 
• String or ribbon to measure
• Circular Template - such as a hoop

Balloon Material List:

Although I am not adding the balloons in Part1. here is a list of the balloons and accessories that I will be using so that you can get them prepared for when your frame is ready! 

• 18" Baby Girl Pink Stripes Microfoil Balloon
• 11" White - only a few for the cloud base
• 5"  Pink or Rose 
• 5"  Pearl Pink - optional
• 5"  White 
• 5"  Pearl White - optional, but it does give a slightly different textural look to the plain white
• 5"  Diamond Clear - approximately 10
• 7"  Chrome Gold - approximately 10
• 260Q Chrome Gold - approximately 15
• 260Q Pink - 4-5 

All the balloons that I am using for this design are Qualatex - www.Qualatex.com

Gold Confetti - ideally a small square cut
Hi-Float - I like to use the new 148ml (5oz) bottle as the nozzle is perfect for 5" and 260Q
Castration Pliers - ideal 'Stretching Tool' for balloons - available through some balloon wholesalers, Amazon, and farming supply companies.

I will be using a Premium Twin-Air Sizer to inflate the balloons, as it will allow me to use the "10th's of a seconds" timer adjustment to give me the perfect graduated sized balloons. Using a hand pump is not so easy to get the precision for this design.

Part 2 is now available! Just click on the link below! https://theverybestballoonblog.blogspot.com/2020/06/part-2-baby-moon-design-step-by-step.html

Happy Ballooning! 


Sue
www.suebowler.com
Follow me on Instagram @suebowler

An Inside into the Instagram Algorithm and The Importance of Understanding It

After watching a free tutorial about Instagram and how to get your 'Dream Followers' earlier this week, I realised as the instructor spoke about how to use the Instagram algorithm to get better engagement that I need to be honest, and confess that I really did not know what the algorithm actually was! Yes, of course, I had heard the term many times, but I had no real idea of how it works, and how it can influence my Instagrams account's effectiveness. 

1. The Instagram Algorithm Predicts How Much You Care About a Post

Your Instagram feed isn’t just based on who you follow, it’s also based on who and what you like. Instagram algorithm keeps tabs on posts that you like. The more photos that you double-click, the more signals you give to the Instagram algorithm that you want to see more content like this in the future.

The more the Instagram algorithm thinks you will “like” that post, the higher it will appear in your feed. Therefore it is important to get your followers to double-click on your posts so that you will always appear in their feed.

2. Instagram Algorithm watches engagement with your followers

According to Instagram, the most important engagements for feed ranking are comments, likes, shares and reposts, and for video posts, views, which is especially helpful to know when you are planning your posts, content, and captions.

It is important that you create content that your followers will enjoy engaging with. If you have the ability you should plan what you are going to post each day. Try to plan a week, or even a month in advance. 
Variety is key, you don't want to be posting the same kind of content every day, or your followers will become bored or worse, unfollow you! 

Here are a few suggestions for some more unusual types of posts from your norm.

• Post an inspiring quote - A surprisingly large proportion of successful posts are quotes/memes, so every business should share this kind of content on occasions as a part of their posting strategy.

When I posted this quote on my Instagram feed it received 100 likes and 4 comments.

• Ask a question - These can vary greatly, here are a few ideas:

Is there a household chore you secretly enjoy? If so, which one?

What famous landmark would you love to visit?

Or the one that I have used below:

This should initiate quite a few responses. Something you really need to be hot on is responding to comments, even emoji comments. You could respond with another emoji- If someone shows a sad emoji then you can respond with a hug emoji for example. 

Questions are a fun way to interact with your audience, and a good indicator that people enjoy what you are posting.

Make your posts exciting! 
I have used CANVA to create both of the posts above. This makes them much more visual. You can either post them using a background that you feel is appropriate to the post, or you could start branding your posts so that they all have the same look and feel about them, and ultimately become instantly recognisable as one of your posts! If you are unsure how to go about branding your business, check out Creating Your Brand Image by Zoe Adam- Jones. Through a video tutorial, she shows you how to create your brand image. 

Creating Your Brand & Image - Digital Marketing with Zoe Adam- Jones CBA

Comments are the most valuable form of engagement, as a comment is a tangible indication of a follower or customer's loyalty and commitment to you and your brand. The fact that they spent the time to write a comment means your audience is highly engaged with your content. 

Each share of your posts is like a mini organic advertisement for your content, and it rates very high on the engagement scale and is therefore something you want to encourage. A simple way to get people to share or repost your post is to create a competition. This is something that I am seeing more often on Facebook, and I am sure that Facebook algorithm works in a very similar way?

This is a competition that is being run by one of our local butchers on Facebook. They are asking people to LIKE the post, Leave a COMMENT and to SHARE to their own page, all the things that will generate great algorithm. At the time of me copying this post they had already generated 996 comments and 1.2 shares! I wonder how many new followers they have attracted too!

Some while ago I shared this Instagram Social Plan - One Month of Post Ideas by Fiona Flintham - fionaflintham.com.

If you are struggling to find things to post about, this plan will give you some great pointers - and have you noticed that it's not all about the products that you are selling! 

3. It's all about the timing!

Posts that are more recent are more likely to be pushed to the top of people’s feeds. This means that posting when your audience is online is crucial. How do you know when they are online? Check your insights! For example, looking at my insights, the best time for me to post is between 3pm and midnight as that is when my followers are most active on Instagram - hmm, I seem to do most of mine in the mornings, so I will look to change my timing and see if it's make a difference!

The one thing that I truly love about creating posts like this is getting to learn so much while doing the research! I have started to put some of these ideas into practise over the different social media platforms that I work on and the initial results have been amazing! If you are on the QBN Members Facebook group, you may have seen a post that I shared asking members - 

If you could have a day working with anyone in the balloon industry who would you choose and why?

This post received 27 likes but more importantly 202 comments! The responses have been amazing and I feel that this post has re-connected many of the group's members who may  have been inactive for a while! 

Understanding algorithms is not easy, but getting an idea on how to engage with and grow your followers through exciting and consistent content is definitely a solid step towards making those algorithms work for you! 

Happy Ballooning!

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me on Instagram @suebowler

Hoops, Beautiful Hoops! - Inspiring Design Ideas

White with Greenery Wedding Wreath by Sue Bowler

From tiny to giant, hoop and wreath designs have become increasingly more popular within both balloon and floral markets. As they continue to pop up on the wedding and party scene, these impressive works of art can act as stunning ceremony backdrops, as reception decor, or as unique staging for photos.

This very pretty Pink, White and printed
Diamond Clear hoop is perfect for weddings
and baby showers. 

I have actually been creating hoop designs for a while now, long before the organic style became the hottest trend! My first hoop designs were primarily constructed using the precision of Classic Decor style, which I still enjoy using quite a bit. And while I do also like building organic style decor, I still consider the basic elements and principles of design. For example, the balloons should be in  proportion to the size of the frame. How we use colour and space is also important, as getting this wrong can result in a haphazard-looking mess.







If you want to make a smaller hoop design, this can be done using hoola-hoops. Another option for smaller hoop designs is actually a recent discovery of mine, using wire hoops. You can find wire hoops like the white wire hoops that I used for the "White with Greenery Wedding" featured at the start of this blog post from Oasis Floral Products . The Ivy Garland and Peony flowers are also from Oasis Floral Products.

I occasionally will use the Structured Organic style to create hoop and wreath designs. Structured Organic style is done using a combination of the classic technique to create the hoop, then adding an organic element to the design afterwards. I really like this style as it adds a level of formality to the design without it looking too structured. 

To make larger hoops, you can purchase pre-made metal hoops, which are perfect for balloons, flowers and greenery. There are some truly inspirational designs on Instagram, just look under the hashtag #balloonhoops shown below.

One of my favourite hoop designers is #balloonilicious

Another alternative to metal hoops is to use round, heavy duty PVC conduit that is available in hardware stores. You can usually buy it in 12ft (3m) lengths, and easily connect them together using compression joints. I recommend making hoops that use approximately 14.5ft (4.5m) of conduit. However, it should be noted that these are not as strong as the metal hoops, and therefore cannot support too much additional weight such as flowers and greenery, without distorting the roundness of the hoop. The rainbow hoop below was made using PVC conduit.

This fabulous "Rainbow Hoop" design was made by a group of student's
during a Simply Organic's class that I recently
taught in Paduva, Italy.

Here are a few more examples of hoop designs that use florals and greenery to add accents.

Photo credit: Alisha Crossley Photography

To find even more inspiration check out this great article: How to Create and Display Circular Wedding Arches. The designs shown are all floral, but with some creative thinking they could easily be adapted for balloons or balloons with floral accent details.



"Wedding gates. Moon gates. Infinity arches. Circular wedding wreaths. Circular wedding arches...

Whatever you call them, large circular floral arrangements are topping the wedding charts this year..."

I love creating hoop designs, and I truly look forward to seeing some of your amazing creations! Don't forget to hashtag #suebowler so I get to see your fabulous creations! 

Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com
#suebower