ARTISTIC ARCHES

Presented by Chris Horne, Product Manager, Amscan International Ltd.

Even the most humble string of pearls or Spiral Arch can be completely re-vitalised and brought up to date with a few very simple additions or changes. This class will be a journey of discovery that will end with lots of new ideas to jazz up your arches and increase your sales

TIARA ARCH

This arch is fantastic for a great many occasions, but is a sure-fire seller for weddings, sweet sixteen, princess parties and many more!

Quite simply, the arch is built by alternating two distinct clusters:

The large clusters are 11” balloons, two of which are inflated larger than the other two. The difference in the sizes will determine the curvature and eventual size of the arch. Keep the two balloons of each size adjacent to each other, and keep the smaller balloons to the inside of the curve.

Once complete, the arch can be adorned in many ways – but for the true “tiara” effect add some helium filled 19” foil balloons to the top of the arch, attaching them with double sided tape – as in the picture on the front of these notes.

Other adornments include Amscan’s great range of swirl decorations and string decorations.

RETRO ARCH

This arch is a real throwback to the days of flower power and free love! The first hints of its associations come in the choice of balloon finish – the Anagram premium colours are perfect for this type of theme.

Simply build a cluster arch using alternating solid colour clusters, rather than spiral pattern. Once again the choice is yours – whether to helium fill the balloons and build your arch on line – or to air fill them and use a frame.

Once complete, the arch is very simply “Accessorised” with the addition of small latex flowers in contrasting colours.

These flowers are made by twisting together 3 duplets of 5”, air filled balloons: two of the duplets contain two fully inflated balloons of the main flower colour – the third contains one fully inflated balloon of the flower colour and an under inflated (about 2 ½” of a contrasting colour for the centre. Arrange the balloons to form the flowers.

The flowers are simply attached with double sided tape, floral glue or glue dots according to your taste.

Stick the flowers to alternate clusters in the arch, to the balloon in that cluster that faces directly out from the arch itself.

Decorated Single Arches

With the introduction of the Value 100ft String decorations from Amscan, it is the easiest thing in the world to transform your single string arches into something special for any theme or event.

The 100ft string decorations are, as suggested, a length of monofilament line 100 feet long (!) with a foil icon attached to the line every 12”. Building the arch is simplicity itself – anchor one end of the line, tie fully inflated 11” * balloons midway between the icons until the desired arch length is achieved, cut of the line and anchor the other end. There is even a conveniently placed “kink” in the line where the balloon should be tied!

Go one stage further with these arches and do Criss-cross arches, graded arch backdrops and even full canopies that look wonderful.

* Don’t forget that Anagram Decorator latex balloons are capable of inflating well beyond their stated maximum of 11” – so you can easily use balloons inflated to 12” for your arch if you want to fill the gaps fully!

FOIL AND LATEX COMBOS

Choose a foil balloon with an appropriate shape – for instance, the “Starburst Happy Birthday” Supershape – which has convenient anchor points on opposite sides. Attach Conwin Grip Tabs to each side of each balloon you want to use, at these points. Next, attach Dacron line to a weight, and build a short length of garland using  11” decorator balloons fully inflated with helium – I suggest 3 or 5 clusters. Odd number are best.

Thread the line through the tabs on one side of the first foil balloon (which you have inflated with helium) and pull the balloon tightly into the end of the latex garland. Tie off. Tie another length of line to the other side of the foil balloon, then proceed as above alternating clusters of latex balloons with foil shapes, until you have the required size of arch. Finish with a section of latex balloons, and a weight. There are many foil balloons in the Anagram range that are suitable for this kind of treatment – once you have build you first arch like this, the possibilities will be endless. NOTE:  California Law can make this arch difficult or illegal in some areas. In those cases, a longer section of latex, plus a helium/air mix in the foil balloons (to reduce weight but not allow the balloons to float) will usually get around the problem….