Mayflower Party Balloon Basics - Hand Pumps and Tying Latex Balloons

Before you get started with balloon upgrades it is important you understand how to use your hand pump to air-inflate the latex balloons you will use in your designs, and how to properly tie latex balloons. Take the time to understand these basics before you begin, it will save you lots of time and frustration! Hand pump basics: • Always secure the lip of your 5” or 260 latex balloon onto the first ridge of your handpump. Note: when inflating 160Q’s the hand smaller pump is ideal. • Never block the air intake at the bottom of your pump! The bottom of your hand pump is where air is pulled in to inflate your balloon. • Your standard size pump is dual-action, meaning that with each pump up or down, your balloon is inflating. • Each pump inflates a 5-inch latex balloon approximately one inch. Remember that 5 inches is the maximum you can inflate a 5-inch latex balloon, so never use more than 5 pumps on this balloon. To ensure all 5-inch latex balloons used in a design are a uniform size, count your pumps, and use the same number of pumps in each 5” you inflate, and they will be the same size! * Be sure you count each pump up and down as one pump. Tying latex balloons: You will be using a professional brand of latex balloons for your balloon upgrades, manufactured specifically for balloon art, so don’t be afraid of working with these balloons! • Your latex balloons were designed to be durable, so they don’t pop easily! • They were also designed to have a long stretchy neck to make tying easier! When tying a latex balloon: 1. Stretch the neck of your balloon out far in order to give yourself plenty of room to tie your balloon off. 2. Wrap the stretched-out neck around two fingers, leaving an open space between your two fingers. 3. Pull the neck of your balloon through the space between your two fingers and roll the tied loop off your fingers to create a knot in the neck of the balloon.