Birthday balloons s-t-r-e-t-c-h

Birthday balloons literally stretch, making just about any shape, creature, or message you can imagine.

But they also stretch figuratively, expanding your budget, animating your theme, adding colour and texture to your décor, and building the spirit of your celebration. Julia Drew, a certified balloon expert and mother of triplets, absolutely insists, "If you can imagine it, one way or another birthday balloons can do it." She should know: For a seven-year-old's big birthday bash, she once crafted a life-size elephant and giraffe from colourful birthday balloons. Marking the mock funereal mood of a gala commemorating a man's passage beyond fifty, she crafted a variegated entry tunnel shading from gray to darkest black, filling the party room itself with celebratory rainbow colors. Beyond dramatic.

Beyond birthday balloon décor.

Why send just a card or flowers when you can send a custom-made birthday balloon bouquet. Why just wrap your present when you can adorn it with balloons? A party supplies specialist happily helps you craft a custom balloon bouquet according to any taste, colour scheme, and theme. You may choose from nearly 200 different imprinted mylar balloons, or you simply may combine colours and shapes according to the birthday person's taste. Of course, if you cannot deliver the balloons in person, a variety of online vendors and services will craft and deliver your birthday balloon bouquet just about anywhere worldwide.

Stealth balloons.

Julia Drew stresses, "Used skillfully and strategically, birthday balloons add drama and impact to any and every birthday gesture."

For romance, a thoughtful husband carefully selects a diamond tennis bracelet for his wife, pondering the best way to present it. Balloons, of course. After the happy couple dines at their favourite restaurant, the waiter delivers the wife's favourite dessert with one hand and a balloon bouquet cradling the jewelry box with the other, leading the restaurant staff in celebratory singing as he completes his gesture. Of course, tears run down the happy wife's cheeks even before she opens the Tiffany-blue box.

For pure surprise, a third-grade class filled garden-sized plastic bags with helium-filled balloons-easy to fill (with adult supervision), and available at all reputable party supply stores. Very early in the morning, the third-graders and their parents snuck into the classroom, keeping the lights off and the door locked behind them, hiding behind their bags and remaining very quiet. When their beloved teacher came into the classroom, they popped-up, tore open their bags, released the balloons in a Technicolour burst as they turned on the lights, and all of them yelled at the top of their voices-in perfect chorus and harmony, of course--"Happy Birthday, Mrs. Hunter!"

For complete stealth, on "birthday eve," a college sorority completely filled their president's beloved Volkswagen beetle with balloons-in the sorority's official colours, of course. Seizing every opportunity for new-bug adornment, the sisters also deployed a balloon bouquet through the sunroof, and they attached another bouquet to the antenna. Of course, they seized every opportunity-attaching a balloon to the gas-pipe cover and making sure they filled the trunk with festive balloons, too.