SoRaiseYourGlasses

Tying Balloons

There is an art to the tying of latex balloons, and one that turns a difficult, frustrating and often painful task into simplicity itself. Perhaps it is unimportant if you're only trying to blow up half a dozen balloons, but if your aim is to prepare a lot of balloons for a party, then you want the easiest method there is, and this article tries to explain how it is done. It sounds complicated, but persevere - it's really so simple once you've got it. This method really works and is so much quicker that the traditional skin removing method that most people use.

1. Once the balloon has been inflated with either air or helium take the neck of the balloon and place it between the second (forefinger) and middle fingers of your left hand (assuming you are right handed - reverse hands if not).
2. Now, with the thumb of your same hand (left) press down on your forefinger such that this exerts additional pressure on both your forefinger and the neck of the balloon that lies between your forefinger and middle finger. At this stage you should be able to keep the balloon inflated without losing any gas and without using your other hand.
3. Next take the opening end of the balloon with your right hand between your thumb and forefinger and stretch the neck away from the rest of the balloon, and away from your left hand.
4. Now raise your right elbow with the balloon neck still stretched and wrap the stretched neck over the thumb and forefinger of your left hand.
5. Now wrap your right elbow right over the inflated balloon so that the stretched neck is wrapped right around your left thumb and forefinger and appears round the back of the balloon.
6. The middle finger of your left hand now becomes a nuisance and you want to get it out of the way so that you can complete the tie. Pull it down towards your left palm so that the stretched balloon neck can now be brought across the top of that left middle finger
7. You should now be able to place the end of the balloon between the left forefinger and thumb that has got the rest of the neck wrapped around it.
8. Grab the end of the balloon with that left forefinger and thumb and pull both thumb and forefinger with the balloon end through the balloon neck. The tie is now complete.

Creating a bow

Bows are very effective decorations and very inexpensive. They have the look of something cleverly constructed but are, in fact, very easy to produce. All you need is a pair of scissors and a length of ribbon, and the best to use is probably florist's ribbon, about 2" or 5cm wide, and it can be obtained in a whole range of colours to suit your party theme or your wedding colours. Often used to adorn the wedding car or to place on each of the pews in church, bows are very simple and yet a very effective decoration.

This process is really very easy once you've mastered it, but you probably need to anticipate trying it 2 or 3 times before you get a really good bow.

1. Cut a length of ribbon about 12 feet or 3.6m in length
2. Cut a length of ribbon about 12" or 30cm in length
3. With the longer ribbon, roll it so that it from one end to the other it's about 8"-9" or 20cm-23cm long when flattened. This should mean that you have rolled the ribbon on top of itself about 8 or 9 times.
4. Now flatten the rolled ribbon and then fold it at the mid point and bring the two rolled ends together.
5. Now take a sharp pair of scissors and cut the from the side of the rolled ribbon to the fold, on both sides of the ribbon in a V shape so that the fold is reduced in width from 2" or 5cm to about 3/4" or 2cm
6. Now take the shorter piece of ribbon and tear it down it's length to produce two pieces. Florist's ribbon tears easily and stays fairly straight, but if it's not quite straight it doesn't matter
7. Tie the shorter piece of ribbon around the fold of the long piece of ribbon at the point where it is now at its narrowest - where you cut. Tie in a simple knot but as tightly as you can.
8. You now have your bow almost complete. Your long ribbon is tightly held so that it cannot unravel and there are 8 or 9 folds at each end. Simply easae out one fold from the inside and pull it across the middle of the bow and give it a slight twist. With the second fold do the same but twist in the opposite direction. Do the same with each fold until all the folds at both ends - 16 or 18 of them - have been pulled out.
9. Now curl the loose ends of the ribbon you used to tie the middle of the bow. If there are any loose ends from the bow ribbon itself, simply tear these into two or three lengths from the loose end through to the middle of the bow and then curl them too, running the dege of the scissors over the ribbon in a smooth movement. This just tidies up the loose ends and makes the bow look that much prettier.

Using Table Confetti

Some people buy bags and bags of confetti and end up with far too much. If you're going to use it on either round or oblong tables that normally sit about 8 people you will need a maximum of one bag for two tables - any more and everyone will have confetti coming out of their ears, and possibly several other places they'd prefer not to have it! It really does go further than you think, and of course not using too much saves you money as well!!