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This flashy and fabulous column is full of design techniques that will make your cash register ring and your customers sing your praises. With Holographic foil focal point toppers and combining of a variety of 260s, rounds and LINK-O-LOON®, this design is the ultimate in column creativity.

Note: Precision Air settings for this design:
5.0, 2.5, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, 0.6, 0.5, 0.4

Linky Hearts Mask Topper

STEP 1
To prepare the Linky Hearts Mask Topper air inflate two Linky Heartsand19″star with the Foil-Flator.

 

STEP 2

Arrange star in the middle of the hearts (refer to photo for placement) and estimate where the hearts touch the star.

 

STEP 3

Put Balloon Bond tape on those points and, attaching one heart at a time, stick the star to the heart. Repeat with the other heart on opposite side. Set aside.
Note: If the Balloon Bond doesn’t stick to the foil, use nail polish remover on a cotton swab to remove the ink from the foil at desired attachment point. Wait for it to dry, then attach.

STEP 4
Fully inflate five Deluxe Key Lime 260 balloons. Release a bit of air before tying. Twist each balloon in the middle and then twist all 5 260s together at the middle twist points.

STEP 5
Cut a 260 in half and tie it into the 260 cluster. Set aside.

STEP 6
Inflate four 5″ (12cm) Deluxe Key Lime latex 0.5 (approximately 5″ (12cm) and form into a quad.

STEP 7
Attach the 260 cluster to the quad by tying the un-inflated 260 tightly into the quad.

STEP 8

Arrange the 260/quad cluster so that the 260s are all coming out of the top of the quad and the quad is on the bottom. Shape the 260s so that they are all curving in the same direction.

STEP 9
Repeat steps 4-8 to create a second 260/quad cluster. Set aside.

STEP 10
Attach the 260/quad cluster to the sides near the top by stretching the un-inflated 260 so it can be laid across the foil balloon and taped on with the Stretchy Balloon Tape.

STEP 11
An alternate way to attach the 260/quad cluster is to use Balloon Bond tape on the quad and attaching to the Linky heart.

STEP 12
Set the Linky heart Mask with 260 embellishments to the side. Now it’s time to create the column…

Column

STEP 13
Set up base plate and conduit pole. Inflate a quad of 18″ (46cm) Fashion Blue balloons to 5.0 on the Precision Air. Twist onto pole.

STEP 14
Inflate a quad of 12″ (18cm) Deluxe Key Lime LINK-O-LOON® to 2.5 and place onto pole above previous quad.

STEP 15
Inflate a 5″ (12cm) Royal Blue balloon sized to 0.5 and tie to one of the tips of the previous LINK-O-LOON® quad. Repeat three more times so that all of the LINK-O-LOON® have a single balloon tied to each tip.

STEP 16
Create four quads using 11″ (28cm) Deluxe Key Lime balloons to the following sizes:
2.0 – 1 quad
1.5 – 1 quad
1.0 – 1 quad
0.5 (do not use extension tips) – 1 quad
Place on pole, starting with the 2.0 sized quad and progressing upward to the smallest quad.

STEP 17
Inflate a quad to 1.5 using 12″ (30cm) Fashion Blue LINK-O-LOON®. Place on pole.

STEP 18
Inflate a 5″ (12cm) Royal Blue balloon sized to 0.4 and tie to one of the tips of the previous LINK-O-LOON® quad. Repeat three more times so that all of the LINK-O-LOON® have a single balloon tied to each tip.

STEP 19
Inflate 12 duplets of 5″ (12cm) Royal Blue sized to 0.4 and set aside.

STEP 20
Make a ring of eight 12″ (20cm) Fashion Blue LINK-O-LOON® all sized to 1.0.

STEP 21
Attach the ring to the LINK-O-LOON® quad with singles. Start by attaching one of the singles in between one of the spaces on the ring by taking a duplet and twisting the duplet around the single and the balloons in the ring.

STEP 22
Continue this process by attaching every other balloon in the ring to another single balloon.

STEP 23
Put a quad (using the remaining duplets from step 18) in between the remaining balloons in the ring.

STEP 24
Create four quads using 11″ (28cm) Deluxe Key Lime balloons to the following sizes:
0.5 (do not use extension tips) – 1 quad 1.0 – 1 quad
1.5 – 1 quad
2.0 – 1 quad
Place on pole, starting with the 0.5 sized quad and progressing upward to the largest quad.

STEP 25
Inflate a quad of 12″ (20cm) Fashion Blue LINK-O-LOON® sized to 2.5 and place on the pole.

STEP 26
Inflate a duplet of 12″ Fashion Blue LINK-O-LOON® sized to 2.5. Repeat for a total of two duplets.

STEP 27
Tie one of the duplets to the quad from step 24. First, tie the tip of the duplet to the tip of the LINK-O-LOON® in the quad, making sure to tie them as close together as possible without a lot of slack in the tips. Next, tie the other tip of the duplet to the adjacent tip in the LINK-O-LOON® quad.

STEP 28
Repeat step 26 by tying the remaining duplet to the remaining two balloons in the quad.

STEP 29
Inflate four triplets and two duplets of 5″ (12cm) Fashion Royal Blue balloons sized to 0.4.

STEP 30
Attach the triplets at the points where the duplets and quads are tied together.

STEP 31
Attach the duplets to the remaining spaces in the top layer.

STEP 32
Inflate a chain of forty 6″ (15cm) Fashion Violet LINK-O-LOON® to 0.5.

STEP 33
Tie the end of the chain to one of the balloons in the chain where the ring is attached to the quad (from steps 17-23).

STEP 34
Count five balloons in the chain, then wrap the chain around the single balloon in the quad from steps 14/15.

STEP 35
Then count five more balloons in the chain, take them back up to the ring of LINK-O-LOON® quad.

STEP 36
Continue this pattern until you tie the last balloon in the chain to where the starting point was. This will create a “V” pattern on the bottom of the column.

STEP 37
Next, take the Linky Heart Mask and tie an un-inflated 260 to the star tail tightly, making sure not to tie above the inflation point of the star. Anchor it to the column with the un-inflated 260. Make sure that the mask is placed longways against the top of the column where it will help the LINK-O-LOON® at the top to not flip upward.

STEP 38
Make a chain of thirty-two 6″ (15cm) Fashion Violet LINK-O-LOON® sized to 0.5 and tie in the first one to the junction where the duplet was tied to the quad in steps 25-28. Count eight balloons in the chain, then skip two balloons in the top LINK-O-LOON®/duplets level and attach into the triplet at that point.

STEP 39
Continue attaching the chain in this manner until you end up tying the last balloon in the chain where you started. This will create swags of 6″ LINK-O-LOON® around the top portion of the column.

STEP 40
Arrange the column, straightening the swags and “V”s and arranging the 260s in a pleasing manner at the top of the Linky Heart Mask.