Thursday, July 18, 2013

How to inflate a Microfoil™ balloon inside a Qualatex Bubble - Part 2

Recently I posted a blog on how to inflate a Microfoil™ balloon inside a Qualatex Bubble balloon, if you missed it, click HERE, the blog also includes a short clip showing step by step how to create this great effect!
Sue Bowler
15" Qualatex Bubble with 14" Qualatex Soft Giraffe Inside! Design by Sue Bowler CBA

In the second part of this blog I would like to show you how to create the same effect but this time using a Qualatex 15" Bubble with a small Microfoil Shape balloon inside... quite a tricky process as you also have to heat seal the Microfoil balloon... now there's a challenge for you!

This technique can be used on all Qualatex Bubble balloons making them a unique and custom designed balloon!





Step 1. Remove the 15" Bubble from the pack of 4, if you are only using one of the Bubbles make sure that you re-seal the pack using a heat sealer or place the pack into a Zip Lock bag so that they remain air-tight and do not dry out.
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Qualatex Clear 15" Solid Colour 4-Pack with Valve # 25048


Step 2. Remove the valve. The 15" Bubble is a valved balloon and therefore you will need to remove the valve, see pictures below.


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Step 3. Pump a very small amount of air into the Bubble balloon, just enough to open up the balloon very slightly.

Step 4. Carefully fold the small Microfoil that you are putting inside the Bubble balloon and then roll it so that it can slide inside the neck of the balloon, this is quite tricky as the neck is quite small on this balloon.

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Step 5. Now here's the trick part, you now have 2 un-valved balloons, both of which will require inflating and sealing!
I recommend that you start by inflating the 15" Bubble balloon first, you can fully inflate it (without any creases), grip the neck closed (it's a very short neck) as not to lose any of the air and then fully inflate the small Microfoil balloon inside, I would recommend that you use a small pocket pump to do this as it has a long and thinner nozzle which makes this a little easier.
Once the small Microfoil is fully inflated you will need to heat seal this balloon. If you are happy that the balloon has been successfully sealed you can continue and now close the Bubble, but if you have lost some air you can add in more air that this time, but be very careful not to lose too much air as this will effect the pressure inside the Bubble and it can make the small Microfoil balloon go down... I did say that it was a little tricky!! 



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Step 6. To close the Bubble balloon, I personally use a 160Q, but I twist the Bubble first and then wrap the 160Q around the twist, again if air starts to leak a little, even over a 24 hour period you can remove the 160Q and re-inflate the Bubble once again!

Once you have created this lovely little Double Bubble, you can decorate them to suit the occasion, with the 14' Soft Giraffe inside Bubble, as shown above, I ran a small line of twisted precision bubble around the edge, these did need securing with a very small amount of Balloon Bond Tape.

If you are currently not using these great 'little' Bubble balloons you should try them out, and see all the great things that you can do with them! 

Observations from using this technique:


Sue Bowler
Double Bubble made by putting a Qualatex Microfoil Heart inside a Qualatex 24" Deco Bubble balloon.
























When using helium to create this great Double Bubble effect, I found it very hard to make the seal completely helium-tight, helium being a very small gas molecule found a way to escape, so within 24 hours there was evidence of slight deflation, but the balloon continued to float for many days. I think that next time I would try using some Stretchy Balloon Tape or Balloon Bond as added security when sealing the Bubble balloon?

Happy Ballooning! I am looking forward to seeing some great Double Bubble designs created by you!

Sue
www.suebowler.com







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