Happy Holidays!

Thank you for joining us in the fun this year and celebrating many of life's special moments with Up, Up & Away! We would like to wish you the happiest of holidays and a fabulous new year!

John, Johnna, Marley and Jessie

Hat Trick!

We did it again! Up, Up & Away! was recently awarded BEST OF SHOW at the Missouri Meetings and Events Fall 2007 Expo, the premier conference for meeting planners and suppliers in the Midwest.

This award completes the Hat Trick--we won the last 3 Best of Show awards from the Missouri Meetings and Events Expos starting in the Fall of 2006 in Kansas City, then heading to St. Louis in the Spring of 2007 and wrapping things up in the Fall of 2007 in Overland Park, Kansas.

The Little Apple, BIG Art journey

We recently traveled to Manhattan, Kansas to create balloon sculptures at the Beach Museum of Art on the Kansas State University Campus. As featured balloon artists of the "Art's UP!" celebration to inaugurate the new Jarvis wing of the museum, we had big fun creating big wearable sculptures for the attendees. It is always great to work with a Chihuly sculpture nearby...

An Olympic Achievement

We were recently commissioned to create decor for Special Olympics Kansas 2007 Celebrating Champions event, held in Mission Hills. We were pleased to be involved in this event, the largest annual fundraiser for Special Olympics Kansas.

Guests were greeted at the Entryway by a sculpture of Olympic Gold Medal Swimmer Ian Crocker, also a guitarist. The outdoor entrance featured a parody of the Olympic Rings as a walk-thru arch--very dramatic!

Additional sculptures featuring the Olympic Ring motif in gold, silver and bronze were created for this fundraiser. It was truly a stunning event!

Happy Birthday....

We've made several birthday cake sculptures over the years, however we're particularly fond of this one created recently, maybe because it was 12 feet tall! It was placed poolside for a 5th birthday celebration! We also made coordinating gifts and tabletop cake sculptures for this event. It's always fun to work with our clients, especially when they see the amazing potential of balloon artistry. Thanks to all of you for letting us do what we do!

Back from the road, right back at it!

We zipped back from Kentucky and got right back at it for one of our favorite annual events, the Chiefs Kick-Off Luncheon. We created this festive stage backdrop featuring the Chiefs logo, hundreds of centerpieces and a lifesize sculpture of KC Wolf. Go Chiefs!

Kentucky, Day 11

Today was the last day of our multi-day exhibit in Louisville, Kentucky. It always feels good to complete a large art exhibit of this size and then stand back to watch the reaction. Folks were lined up all day snapping photos from every possible angle.

The last sculpture in this installation is a gorilla. He stands nearly 5 feet tall! We've also included an overview photo, showing the hippo, the giraffe, the lion, the crocodile, the aardvark, the elephant, the zebra, the tiger and cubs, George of the Jungle and the gorilla.

Kentucky, Day 10

George, George, George of the Jungle...

Our parody of George of the Jungle is swinging from a vine across the exhibit. While he was a little tricky to suspend in mid-air, we did it and the thunderous applause followed. Cool!

Johnna met the Colonel of all things fried today. Only in Kentucky!

Kentucky, Day 9

We knew the day would be fabulous when breakfast included fried green tomatoes & cheesy grits....yum! We'll pass on the sweet tea (which is one word here--like swee-T) but the rest of the southern goodness served up suits us just fine!

Today's sculpture is a tiger. If you look closely, you might see 3 mischievous tiger cubs, too! Our exhibit area is starting to fill in nicely. We will squeeze in 2 more large sculptures and there's nowhere to go but up now!

Kentucky, Day 8

Today we created Arnie the Aardvark. He's about 9 feet long and has been chasing around the same 3 ants all day. Even the ants are jungle-sized! We also added a toucan and new foliage this afternoon. Folks just can't believe these huge sculptures are made of balloons and have to touch them to make sure, which is causing a little worry for us but the sculptures are enduring the extra attention.

Don't tell the Humane Society folks, but we're bringing some big ol' felines to the fair tomorrow...

Kentucky, Day 7

The fun continues with this gigantic jungle-themed sculpture! Today we added a 12-foot long alligator. He has taken up residence near the water's edge and so far is getting along well with the hippo.

Tomorrow may bring about the creation of our favorite exterminator....

Kentucky, Day 6

Early morning brought a heavy rainstorm and a quick umbrella-sheltered walk to visit the Louisville Slugger museum and factory. It's always fun to see how something is made, especially something with so much history. The tour was great and there is a Peanuts exhibit at the museum thru September that was also enjoyable!

Our sculpture today is an African Grey Elephant. He stands between 9 and 10 feet tall!

We often hear comments about how detailed our sculptures are. Today near the end of our sculpting time, we realized we weren't sure how many toes an African Grey Elephant has. One quick phone call to Emily back in KC and we had the info--5 on the front, 4 on the back. Thanks, Em, for keeping us accurate! We couldn't create sculptures of this scale without lots of support from everyone back home. We're bestowing the title of Official Research Guru on Emily. The title doesn't come with a salary, just lots of appreciation. :-)

Kentucky, Day 5

Our exhibit in Louisville keeps getting bigger and bigger! Today we sculpted a Lion and the crowd response to it was fabulous.

Have we mentioned yet the folks in Kentucky are super?? We've met many kind people and our audiences have been terrific. Not that we plan to leave the Midwest, but we could be bribed with a few more of those fried green tomatoes. It was suggested that we visit a local eatery with fried green tomato and bacon sandwiches. We'll keep you posted...

Things are really looking up for one of the animals in our exhibit...the giraffe has a name! Alex, age 11 from Louisville, has named the giraffe Joey. Thanks, Alex!

Kentucky, Day 4

Today we created a zebra, monkeys swinging from a sign overhead, a bumblebee and a scary snake. The crowds were enormous today, which made for really fun shows! We met a set of triplets and created the Three Wise Monkeys as hats for them. What a great time!

Kentucky, Day 3

Today we built a 14 foot tall giraffe and he needs a name! Send us your suggestions!

We added lots of new details today, including bugs, butterflies, birds, m0nkeys and even more trees! The butterfly pictured is un-inflated balloons stretched over wire to form the wings. Each wing is hand-painted. The audiences for our two daily shows have been HUGE and great fun!

After a full day of sculpting, we hit the town for the evening. We had dinner at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. If you are a Food Network fan, you might know this place from Bobby Flay's Throwdown breakfast challenge. It was every bit as funky as we had hoped (9 years of Ugliest Lamp contest winners on display!) and the food was even better than we had heard! We had fried green tomatoes and lots of other goodies that we won't publish here in fear of the folks at the gym catching word of our gastronomic adventures. We did manage to resist the bourbon ball milkshake but many yummy items did hop onto our plates. Check this place out when you are in Louisville!

Kentucky, Day 2

Day 2 of the Kentucky exhibit included the creation of Henry Hippo. Henry is residing in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. We also added lots of foliage to make our exhibit space more jungle-like.

Kentucky, Day 1

Today was the first day of our 11-day exhibit in Louisville, Kentucky. The heat has been record-breaking here for several days now, however we are ultra lucky to be working in a huge indoor expo center. It's a treat and the folks here are super friendly!

We started out with a large, empty space this morning and ended the day with 11 trees, a few around 12 feet tall and a waterfall. Tomorrow we will be sculpting animals to add to the inflated jungle. Check back soon....

Colorado, Part II

After a whirlwind trip to Colorado to work at Cordillera, we were back in KC for a week and then headed right back to Colorado. Our second trip required loading up the balloon-mobile for the drive across Kansas, no aeroplanes this time!

Our second Colorado trip in a month gave us the opportunity to create 11 abstract sculptures for a convention in Denver. Eight of the sculptures were around 6 to 7 feet tall, 3 of them were between 12 and 14 feet tall! Two of the super-tall sculptures included lighted balloons. How cool is that? Balloons with lights inside!! You can check out all of the sculptures in our portfolio.

Next stop....Louisville, Kentucky!

Colorado, Part I

We recently had the opportunity to perform our balloon magic at the Summit at Cordillera in Colorado's Vail Valley. While it was a challenge to work at 11,000 feet, especially after flying in from KC on the same day, the event was a blast! The Vail Valley Motorcycle Association hosted one terrific event and we hope to sculpt balloons for them again!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! Folks are always asking where we have been creating our unique variety of balloon sculptures so we have created a blog to keep you updated!

This post contains the archived text from our "Newsflash!" page on our website. When you click "Newsflash!" on our website now, it will direct you to our blog!

March 12th, 2007
Up, Up & Away! wins BEST OF SHOW Award at the Missouri Meetings and Events Expo held in St. Louis. Over 70 exhibitors competed for the award.

March 9th, 2007
Up, Up & Away! artists sculpted a movie theatre, complete with moviegoers and filmmakers, from balloons for the the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Led by John and Johnna Perry, the sculpture was completed with assistance from artists in the Austin area, and visiting artists from Arizona and Massachusetts.

February 21st, 2007
Johnna Perry, Up, Up & Away! co-owner, won first place in a themed competition at Twist & Shout, the largest international balloon artists convention and competition. The Pajama Jam competition featured several Slumber Party themed contests and Johnna won with a darling Tooth Fairy!

February 5th, 2007
Up, Up & Away! is excited to announce we will be providing balloon entertainment at the newest KC area Red Robin location in Liberty. Come visit our award-winning balloon artists in Liberty every Wednesday evening from 5 to 8 P.M. for Family Night! For a complete listing of our weekly appearances, including all five of the KC area Red Robin locations, please visit our "See Us Live!" page.

December 1st, 2006:
Up, Up & Away! artists won 2nd place in the International Balloon Decorator's Challenge! The winning creation was a multi-story balloon canopy featuring more than 1,000 balloons.

September 12th, 2006:
Up, Up & Away! awarded the Editor's Choice Award at the Kansas City Regional Expo, Local Focus, Global Impact.

August 2006:
Up,Up & Away's Balloon Masters, featured on Iowa's PBS station! Up, Up & Away! was commissioned to create a parody of Grant Wood's famous painting, American Gothic.
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