Welcome to BMTV! Christmas is nearly upon us, so are you feeling festive yet? We are here at Balloon Market!

Still floating after 2 weeks.

First off this week, we wanted to show you the Christmas bouquet that Mark from Pioneer made a couple of weeks ago. We haven’t topped it up with helium, but all the balloons (including the latex balloons!) are still floating 13 days after inflation. Admittedly, the foils are a bit squishy and the latex balloons have shrunk, but if you consider that normal latex balloons will float for 8-12 hours, 2 weeks is incredible! The secret to the balloons’ long float life is that they have been treated with hi-float prior to inflation. This coats the inside of the latex and dries to create a hard seal that prevents helium from escaping. Our bouquet definitely shows off how far a little extra preparation can go!

Save some money over Christmas.

Carrying on the Christmas theme, we have two festive packages on our website that contain a selection of themed foil balloons with a discount. The first package contains 5 different designs: 3 Qualatex and 2 Betallic foils following a Christmas theme. There are 5 balloons of each design in the package, and you will receive a 10% saving over buying these balloons individually. Perfect for getting a mix of designs in for the Christmas period. The second package contains 4 Qualatex New Year themed foils for stocking in your shop for New Year’s Eve. Again there are 5 balloons of each design, and you’ll receive a 10% saving.

Air fill add-on.

Below are images of 9” air-fill balloons from Qualatex. These festive balloons are brilliant, but it’s important to remember that they do not come with a self-sealing valve. Instead you have to heat seal them, and will need a heat-sealer to do this. Once you’re set-up, you will start to make some real money with these are they are cheap as chips, and you can sell them for one or two pounds each. It’s a no-brainer! It’s necessary to know how to heat seal but it’s really simple. You just inflate the balloon with a pump, and hold the bottom of the neck to stop any air escaping. We set the dial on our heat-sealer to between 3 and 4, which sets the time the sealer operates for. We find this is perfect for these particular balloons. If you are using a different sealer than the one we have, you will need to experiment with the settings to find the right one for you. Place the balloon in the heat sealer as high-up on the neck as possible. This keeps the neck flat so it’s easier to tie onto a balloon stick, and prevents air escaping from the main balloon into the neck. Press the heat sealer down, and wait a few seconds after the sealer has stopped before removing the balloon and that’s it! A perfectly sealed balloon that you can tie to a stick!

Closing time.

I guess we should mention when we close for Christmas! Our last day of dispatch is Tuesday 22nd December 2015, so if you want any balloons delivered over the Christmas period then you will need to place your order before 3:30 on that day. This goes for New Year balloons as well, as we are closed between Christmas and New Year, so if you do need them please make sure you get them at the same time as your Christmas balloons. We will still be open on the 23rd until 12 o’clock, so you can come and collect on the morning of the 23rd if you are in our local area of Southampton.

Rachel Ellen range.

Greg claimed that he was 100 a few weeks ago by wearing one of the giant Rachel Ellen badges. If you remember, he was very excited that the badges had stands on the back so you could prop them on the mantelpiece or a desk if you don’t like wearing badges! Speaking of Rachel Ellen badges, we now stock the whole range on our website. We have a pink, girly design in milestone ages, a more masculine POW-themed range and also a gender neutral range of Happy Birthday designs.

That’s if for this week, hope you enjoy the run-up to Christmas and we’ll see you next time!

Rob

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