This week on BMTV we are joined by Sue Bowler who shows us not one but two designs, showing us how you can add value with balloons to gifts. The first design is a simple yet effective birthday gift design and the second is a fun giraffe gift design which can be easily adapted to be another animal.

Sue starts by demonstrating a birthday balloon design centred around a wrapped gift in a cylindrical box, but you can adapt the design depending on the type of gift. This design would look great being added to a bottle of champagne for example. First you need to add a candy connector to the top of the gift, using a candy connector glue dot to attach. A cup can then be put on to the connector so you can attach a 9-inch Birthday Pink & Gold Dots foil balloon to it.

Sue then takes a piece of polka dot cello wrap which is folded, and heat sealed at either side to create a bag so the gift can be put inside of it. You can add in confetti into the bag or other small additions which add extra value to the design. Once the gift is inside the bag, Sue takes some fuchsia ribbon and gathers the cello wrap around the candy connector at the top and ties the ribbon around it. Then you can attach the 9-inch foil balloon to the cup and secure in place.

She then takes two 4-inch air filled magenta hearts and ties them together to create a bow which is then added around where the ribbon is tied. She secures in place with glue dots and then adds in a fuchsia ribbon bow to complete the design.

The second design which Sue demonstrates is centred around a square boxed gift which is again wrapped in a polka dot cello wrap and secured with ribbon. For this balloon design Sue takes four, 5-inch Goldenrod latex balloons, inflating two and tying together to create a duplet and then doing the same with the other two balloons and then twisting them together to create a four-balloon cluster. A 350Q Goldenrod latex balloon is then inflated which will become the neck for the giraffe. Sue places it on top of the cluster to see if the height of it needs to be adjusted. The inflated 350Q is then attached to the 5-inch balloon cluster by taking the end of the 350Q and tying around the cluster in figure of eight.

Sue then creates a split duplet, which is where she takes two inflated 5-inch Goldenrod latex balloons and twists one balloon in half to create a duplet and then does the same with the other 5-inch balloon and then twists them both together to create a cluster. This is then secured in place to the top of the neck. Sue then creates some legs for the giraffe using two 260Q Goldenrod latex balloons and two 5-inch mocha brown latex balloons. An inflated 260Q and inflated 5-inch mocha brown latex balloon are tied together and with the 5-inch balloon Sue does an apple twist to create the hoof at the bottom of the leg. This is then repeated to create the second giraffe leg and the two are tied together, leaving a stretch between the two to be able to secure to the design.

The neck, with the two clusters either end is then attached to the wrapped gift and Sue attaches an inflated 14-inch Jolly Giraffe foil to the top of the design. The legs are then wrapped in place at the base of the design, completing the design. Sue also adds a fuchsia ribbon bow to the giraffe as a final finishing touch.

Anna-Jayne

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