Garlands

by Jessica Tezeno
(Pine Prairie, Louisiana USA)

Hi, I write in reference to ask what advice you can give me in creating a neatly uniform balloon garland? I have been doing them for some time and only wanting to get better at making them look eye-catching to get business?

P.S. Thanks by the way I am currently participating in becoming a CBA to add to my Event Design current business.

ANSWER

Hi Jessica,

It's great that you're training to become a Certified Balloon Artist. This will give your business a boost, for sure!

To answer your question...

For creating stunning looking garlands, arches or columns, two things are really important: the balloon size and how tightly you pack the balloons or balloon clusters.

For the "classic" type of garlands and arches, you need to blow up your balloons to exactly the same size to get the desired neat look.

You achieve this by either using an electric inflator with a timer or a balloon sizer.

To make sure that you can't see the poles in your columns, pack the balloons really tightly, as shown in my balloon column tutorial.

When you want to create garlands or arches in the trendy "organic" look, the "pack the balloons tightly" tip still applies.

But to achieve the organic look, you need to mix balloons of different sizes and colors. I recommend to use at least 4 different sizes (5", 11", 16", 36").

You also need each size in various colors, or shades of the same color (typically 5 to 8 colors).

Have you tried making your garland with a decorating strip? If not, check out my balloon decorating strip tutorial.

I hope this helps, Jessica, and best of luck with your CBA training.

Margit