We’d just like to start with a big thank you to Pioneer Europe’s Mark Drury for joining us in the last couple of BMTV episodes. We learned many things in the interview with Mark, such as how Pioneer and the Qualatex brand started as well as Mark’s love of certain 80s films and his tips for the essential tools every balloon decorator needs when starting out. In the following episode, Mark gave us a quick “how-to” on creating a spooky QuickLink character for Halloween! If you missed those videos and would like to see some tricks of the trade, or fancy creating a witch character of your own, then click on the images below.

It’s that time of year!

Over the past week, we’ve noticed an increase in sales of Christmas balloons, so it’s time to get into the festive mindset! We have lots of traditional Christmas designs including SuperShapes of a Snowman and Santa heads, but our most popular has always been the Merry Christmas star balloons. We have these in Red, Green, Gold and Silver. We think they’re so popular because of their traditional colours and festive designs which coordinate so well with other Christmas balloons and decorations. Whatever the reason, their popularity shows no signs of slowing down any time soon!

New in this year from Betallic are matching Stocking and Tree cookie designs that would go really well with our existing Gingerbread Man SuperShape or Gingerbread Round foil balloon, mmmm, almost good enough to eat! We also have some other great new designs from Kaleidoscope. If you remember when John from APAC came in for an interview a couple of months back, he hinted that Kaleidoscope wanted to come up with different designs in the industry. They have definitely achieved this with with these two Christmas present designs, similar in theme but completely different in design and shape!

 

Greg’s quite fond of the Merry & Bright Qualatex balloon. He says that it makes him feel warm and Christmassy inside; like he is sat by an open log fire, drinking port and watching The Wizard of Oz!! So, now we know what Greg gets up to on Christmas Day! For me, my favourite this year is this “Nordic Pattern” balloon from Qualatex, purely because it has a Christmas jumper theme which is one of my favourite aspects of Christmas!

We are closed between Christmas and New Year, so if you need any New Year stock from us, then it’s well worth getting it at the same time as your Christmas stock. The gold, black and silver colour scheme is quite popular for New Year and is always a sophisticated look. For example: our New Year plates, napkins, cups and Happy New Year banner. Greg has noticed that the cups for the festive Christmas are huge compared to the cups in the New Year range. Perhaps it has something to do with the manufacturers thinking of our health and by New Year we should be reducing our intake in readiness for all those healthy New Year’s Resolutions?! ;

We’ve witnessed a lot of party boxes going out recently so we asked around in the office to find out why. Someone mentioned they might be for people to create ‘Night Before Christmas Boxes’. So, what are these we hear you cry? Good question! They’re basically little boxes containing treats such as chocolate coins, hot chocolate, some glitter to sprinkle outside to guide the reindeer to your door, and perhaps a magic key for Father Christmas. If you’re thinking you might like to create some ‘Night Before Christmas Boxes’ to add to your offering, we have party boxes in several traditional Christmas colours including red, green, silver and gold.

AeroPole System

A very exciting product which we have just brought into stock is the AeroPole system. This is made up of two HEAVY metal base plates and 7 heavy-duty poles for creating balloon arches. The advantage of the AeroPole system is that it provides a sturdy, yet collapsible, structure on which to build air-filled arches yet is flexible enough withstand the elements of the outdoors. The AeroPole system has been tested extensively in windy conditions and even though they flexed and bent, they didn’t fall over or come apart. We asked Mark from Qualatex about his experience of the AeroPole system and he kindly sent over some pictures of fantastic arches he’s created.  As you can see, these are perfect for both indoor and outdoor use. The AeroPole system is also modular, meaning you can use a few poles for a smaller arch or just the one pole for a balloon column with a topper. You can also add another pole set for expanding the width of the arch from 35 foot to 50 foot, so you can really create some really massive and impressive arches.

 

 

 

All that’s left is to wish Carrie Fisher a happy birthday today and we’ll see you next week!

Rob

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