Feeling creative?  Let your imagination soar off into the clouds and build your own hot air balloon!

Using products available from Office 365 why not try your hand at these?

For the balloon, cut strong paper, with 5 Star Scissors or use soft card and cut using a Stanley Cutting Knife, making hexagonal shapes of equal size.  Using a choice of Sellotape, staples, or labels, join the hexagonal shapes together to form your balloon shape. If you’re using paper you could even cover it with Tipp Ex to give it more strength. To make the basket at the bottom of your hot air balloon, you can take a Robinson Young Insulated Vending Cup, make two holes in each side and insert a long strong length of Smartbox Pro Medium Polypropylene Twine, in each side, making sure to tie a knot  so that the string stays in place. Make two holes in the balloon and attach the opposite end of string into the balloon to join the balloon to the basket. You now have your basic hot air balloon and the fun can begin!

You can now decorate your balloon with the many choices available here with Office 365; let your imagination go wild! Decorate your hot air balloon with Avery Packet of Labels, or use Lakeland Colourthin Colouring Pencils or Derwent Academy Oil Pastels to make your balloon really take off! Once finished you can hang your hot air balloon and admire, and use the paper cup as storage for pens or any other office stationary of your choice.

For a different take on this idea, substitute the paper balloon for a small refuse bag, take outside and drop from a height and watch it catch the wind and float gently down. What a great way to pass the time at home! Alternatively, if you get bored in the office between phone calls, you could stand on your chair and drop your refuse bag balloon and watch it as it falls gracefully to the ground. Please note, if you get in trouble with the boss, it wasn’t our idea! Please we really shouldn’t be recommending standing on chairs, so do go careful!

After all this excitement, you may then want to go for a lie down….but on the other hand, you may want to try hot air ballooning for real?! If so, why not head on over to Adventure Balloons where you can enjoy the real thing for as little as £89 per person!

Coloured sticky dots can come in very useful for a range of different purposes and here at Office 365 we highly recommend that you keep a packed in your draw at all times. We were all first introduced to these coloured stickers at school, given them as rewards for good behaviour or stuck on our work with a smiley face drawn on top if the work was up to standards. To this day, the sight of a packet of coloured sticky dots still has an impact on us having the power to give butterflies in the tummy…or is that just me…There is more to these sticky dots than this however, take a look at the many uses they have:

• Library book coding i.e. Green stickers = history books, red stickers = fiction, yellow stickers = science and so on
• Reward/incentive stickers for children in home and at school
• Garage sales and car boot sales with prices written on them
• For labelling ‘what’s yours’ when house sharing, going through a break up, in the office, and when organising the possessions of a loved one after they have passed
• Marking Dates on food items
• Organising and prioritising paper work
• Filing
• Marking calendars and planners at home and in the office
• Labelling topic books at school

Our Avery packets of assorted coloured sticky dots are easy to use and provide a convenient way of using your labels one at a time. Available in a variety of sizes, they are perfect for the regular user. The featured labels measure .8mm in diameter and come in packs of 416! And with 25% off, you get all this for just £0.80p! So get stocked up now while the supplies last and enjoy super fast next day delivery and even free delivery should you spend over £40!

The Green Bit

We are all becoming increasingly aware of the effects that our actions have on the planet, and the amount of people taking care to recycle products at home is on the increase. But what about in the office? Avery believe that using eco-friendly products is a great place to start, which is why they have brought out their range of Avery® EcoFriendly labels. Why not make a difference in your work place and change things for the better now? Avery’s EcoFriendly range of labels (addressing, mini and removable labels) are certified by the internationally renowned Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). They use only paper that is manufactured from trees sourced from well-managed forests, plus the packaging is made from recycled cardboard. The Avery Recycled QuickPeel Labels are natural white recycled addressing labels which are made from 100% recycled paper. Reduce your impact on the environment by selecting labels responsibly. It’s another small way to protect our future. Choose from Avery’s FSC-certified EcoFriendly range, or their recycled range!

Avery campaign, ‘Help Plant 100,000 New Trees’ is helping to bring everyone together with the same economical values. Planting trees can help to combat climate change and provides sustainable living in poor rural communities. So, let’s all plant 100,000 trees together! When you purchase labels by the Avery band you will see a promotional code on the pack. Simply log into the Avery Site and you can chose whether to be given ‘a big carrot’ to be redeemed against gift vouchers, or plant a tree. With the help of customers so far, Avery have planted over 64,000 trees!