Thursday, April 20, 2017

Giant Balloons, Confetti Balloons, Tassels, and Organic Decor — Modern Balloon Styling by Shannon Kilford, Born to Party, Sydney, Australia.


We are all becoming a little organic crazy And it would appear that in Australia, they are pretty good at it!  

Shannon Kilford's ballooning career started when she applied for a job to manage a little party shop called Born To Party, in Sydney, Australia. Little did she realise that on her first day that she was going to be learning how to make balloon Topiary Balls and that one day the shop would be hers!  

I recently met Shannon through working on one of my blogs, A Look At Colour Trends for Spring 2017. Whilst doing my research, I discovered some of Shannon's fabulous designs on Instagram, and I was very inspired by her style.
"My very first organic design was to decorate a stand at one of Sydney's largest makers markets that happens twice a year. I inflated way too many balloons, so I took them back to the shop and made them into Garlands for our table and to float off a giant balloon. This was two years ago. It took off from there!" 


"For this Garland, we were approached to create a super glamorous embellished Garland in navy, white and silver for a client's 40th birthday. We used a combination of Pearl White, White, Silver, Pearl Midnight Blue, and we double stuffed Onyx Black into Jewel Sapphire to create the shiny navy balloons. We then embellished the Garlands with honeycomb balls, silver tassels, silver fringing, and 16" silver confetti balloons! Originally our party girl only wanted one Garland but because of the layout of the room, we had to go for two gorgeous Garlands for symmetry. We finished the room off with giant silver confetti balloons decorated with mini organic style collars and our handmade tassel garlands. I love walking back into the room when we are finished packing up. If I am in love, I know our client will be too!" 
Shannon Kilford
"Eighteen fabulous years ago I first started working with balloons. I did the beginners workshop through Qualatex® Balloon Company in Australia and got to attend my first Australian Balloon Convention in the first year of being employed at Born To Party. Once I knew the basics and a few advanced techniques, I was able to figure out a lot of the designs for myself and I grew from there by experimenting and taking time to 'play' with balloons. I always try out new designs and ideas and use them in our shop window displays. There is so much education happening this year in Australia. It's super exciting! After so long in the industry, it's exciting to be still learning and enjoying all the new trends in balloon world!"
I asked Shannon to tell me a little about her business.
"Born to Party is a brick and mortar store that has been open for twenty eight years this year! The shop specialises in boutique partyware and modern balloon styling. We still do classic decor, but we have chosen to focus on the modern goodies for now. I am the shop's fifth owner and have now owned it for nearly twelve of those twenty eight years. I have five employees. One is my newbie and is full-time. The other four are permanent part-time, and all have been with Born To Party for the long haul. We are a family-run store and our staff are like family, too. My dear Mum works with me, as well as helping in the shop, helping look after my little ones. She also does the admin side of things for me as it is not one of my hidden talents. She is my godsend! I couldn't do this without her or my other staff members for that matter, either." 



What do you believe has worked well for you to grow your business?
"We worked hard at getting the word out that we specialise in the more modern type of balloon decor that is sending Pinterest and Instagram crazy! We do expos, work on collaborations with some of Sydney's most loved stylists on styled shoots, and got involved with an influencer/blogger. We are currently working on a complete makeover. We've just launched our new logo. We are also having all of our stationary re-designed and our new sparkly website is currently under construction. I want our new website to take us to the next level, so watch this space! 

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Alberto Falcone, CBA. Is On The Road For The Qualatex World Tour!

I love this display. Alberto created this for an exhibition trade stand for a baby clothing company. The use of his fabulous flowers is pure art and
injects so much colour and vibrancy to the display. 



Who cannot love the fabulous work of the very talented artist, Alberto Falcone, CBA? Alberto's balloon career started 20 years ago after attending an event organised by Balloon Express in Florence, Italy. For the first few years, like so many of us, Alberto's balloon career started out as a hobby. But after many requests for event decor, Alberto felt it was time to take his hobby more seriously!



Alberto loves to work with all Qualatex® balloons, but at this time he favours Quick Link Balloons™. When I asked him why, he told me that he has so much to discover, each time he uses them it is a surprise for him.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

The Qualatex® World Tour Has Started - Enter the Mystery Box Competition to win a free registration to WBC 2018!

The Qualatex® World Tour—#QualatexWorldTour17—has officially started! With sixty-six stops scheduled across the globe, this is going to be one amazing worldwide Qualatex event! 


Tina Giunta, CBA and Chris Adamo, CBA kick off the Q-Tour in Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Australia and New Zealand opened up this amazing tour with classes being held in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide, Australia plus Auckland, New Zealand.  In Europe, the tour kicked off in Belgium, closely followed by Greece! The U.S. tour starts in Miami on the 30th of March! To find out all the stops and class details click HERE for the U.S. and HERE for the rest of the world.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Free Online Balloon Industry Design and Calculator Tool from Chris Adamo, CBA.

I am so excited to be able to share with you a fabulous new FREE Online Balloon Industry Design and Calculator from the fabulous Chris Adamo, CBA, of Balloons Online, in Sydney, NSW, Australia.


Chris Adamo, CBA
Chris is one of those guys who loves to find an easier solution. Last year he designed a fabulous tool - the confetti applicator. As we all know getting confetti to distribute evenly and not clump up inside a balloon is not an easy task. However, Chris solved this problem by designing a tool that is easy to make and gives perfect results every time! If you missed this post, click HERE. Chris is always keen to share a great tip or technique, and once again he is sharing another fabulous tool!

The Balloon Design and Calculator Tool is a project that Chris has been working on for some time. And after many months of work, he is ready to share this tool with the balloon industry!

There are four tools to work with: the Quick Link Designer, a Balloon Column Calculator, a Balloon Arch Calculator and a Ceiling Fill Calculator.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

A Look at Colour Trends for Spring 2017

Design by Shannon Kilford of Born to Party, Mosman, NSW, Australia.
www.borntoparty.com.au


The Pantone® Colour of the Year 2017 is "Greenery." It is described by Pantone as "A refreshing and revitalising shade, Greenery is symbolic of new beginnings. Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature's greens revive, restore and renew."

Thursday, March 9, 2017

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
















Friday, March 3, 2017

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!