Halloween

Kicking us off this week is the ever-approaching Halloween! October is now upon us, and this is when Halloween balloons really take off and start selling big time! For those of you planning a party, we have a selection of cups, plates and napkins, along with skull cupcake cases for creating sweet Halloween treats. This year’s batch of spooktacular Halloween balloons are some of our best yet, the Pumpkin bubble and Crow Supershape among them. The Sitting Elf was a massive success for Christmas last year (we kept selling out, so get your order in early!), so Amscan have extended their range for Halloween with the Sitting Skeleton. He is made from clear plastic and includes a straw for inflation. Greg recommends that you should always inflate clear balloons (including the Skeleton) with a pump instead of a straw. The reason for this is that water vapour from your breath can cause condensation on the inside of the balloon, causing a cloudy finish. If you want to keep the clear effect as much as possible, then always inflate with a pump!

Wedding throwing confetti and a one-off banner

New products this week includes wedding confetti for throwing over the happy couple, which is colour-fast and bio-degradable. It comes in sophisticated-looking boxes, so will look great on tables ready for the confetti throwing event.

Nick from the warehouse came into the office this week and said “look at this!”. He was brandishing one of our 70^th birthday pink banners but we soon released that it was two banners in one header card. Greg has been itching to say on BMTV “you buy one you get one free” for months now so as a little gift, the first person to buy a 70^th pink banner will get this special two-for-the-price-of-one banner.

Curly Qs

We have another quick tip for you! This week we show you an easy way of creating spiral 260Q balloons that are called Curly-Qs! These are a funky curl shape and can be used for adorning other decorations such as columns and letters or numbers. You can make these the traditional way of curling a 260Q so it inflates curly, but for a tighter (not to mention an easier) curl you can use a 160Q inside the 260Q. To insert the 160Q, hold the 260Q upright and feed the smaller balloon through the neck of the larger. This is easier than you would think, as the powder coating on the balloons makes them slide easily inside each other. Once inside, you will need to tie the closed ends of both balloons together so the inside balloon won’t fall out. Insert your pump inside the neck of the 260Q, between the two balloons. Inflate the 260Q but be careful not let go of the 160Q; the tension of the inside balloon will pull the outer balloon into a spiral pattern when it inflates. Once fully inflated, tie the open ends of both balloons together; again, be careful not to let go of the 160Q as it will disappear inside the 260Q given the chance!

And there you have it! Once you get the hang of making these, you will be able to produce a Curly-Q in seconds to add a creative flair to your balloon decoration! We are always talking about adding value to your decorations, and this will add pounds to your creation while costing only pence! Please note that If you are using jewel or transparent balloons you will be able to see the 160Q on the inside, so bear this in mind if you’re making a decoration with a specific colour scheme. It tends to work better if both balloons are a similar colour, but why not experiment with different colour combinations like white and black for a stripey effect?

If you decide to give Curly-Qs a go, then send us some pictures and we’ll show them on a future BMTV! See you next week.

Rob

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