Month: May 2011

Baby pacifier

It definitely feels like baby shower season! I made these pacifier balloons and hung them up as decorations for a baby shower.

Pacifiers
Pacifiers

To make this pacifier, you’ll need one 5″ round balloon and one 160 balloon.

  1. Inflate the 160 balloon until there is a little bit less than 1″ uninflated.
  2. Make one loop for the handle.
  3. Push the air to fill up any remaining uninflated part of the balloon.
  4. Make 3 loops for the mouth shield part of the pacifier, leaving a small bubble at the end. You can make the three loops with one twist by first folding the balloon so it has 3 loops (like a sine wave with 1.5 cycles – see picture… actually it’s more like 1.55) and twisting it in the middle (along the x-axis.)
  5. Hide the remaining small bubble in the handle.
  6. Then inflate the round balloon, tie it, and wrap the end around the 160 balloon to attach it.

Turtles

Mommy turtle and hatchlings

Here’s a mommy turtle with two little baby turtle hatchlings. I’m currently running low on green 260 balloons, so I used a 350 to make the shell using a three-bubble roll through, and a 160 for the flippers and feet. This design is based on another design I saw a few years ago (the owner has taken that youtube video down since then.)

Mommy and baby fish

Mommy and baby fish

I made this one for a baby shower. The larger fish above is supposed to be a mommy fish, and the smaller fish a baby fish. Trivia question: What is a baby fish called? (Answer below.)

I’ve shown you the larger fish before. (See this previous post.) The smaller fish design (along with the coral and seaweed) I saw on a youtube video by BusterBalloon. I really like that design as well – it uses an entire 260 balloon, a 160 scrap for the fins, and a small white round for the eyes.

To (loosely) attach the fish to the coral, take a small piece of uninflated balloon and find some place to secure one end on the fish. Then find some place to secure the other end on the coral. (You can first tie knots at the ends of the balloon if that helps.) If you look closely at the picture above, you can see where I slid in one end of the uninflated balloon at the bottom of the mommy fish in between the 260 balloon and the round balloon.

What is a baby fish called? A newly hatched fish is called a fry. A baby fish that is a bit older is called a fingerling (and is about the size of one’s finger or larger.)

[ Video link: Clown Fish by BusterBalloon ]

Simple Elephant

Elephant

Here’s my version of a simple elephant balloon animal. I’ve seen other simple one-balloon elephants, but in this design I use a second 160 balloon so that the trunk is more in proportion compared to the rest of the body.

This design requires two balloons: one full 260 balloon and a 160 scrap for the trunk.

Inflate the balloon leaving about four inches uninflated. Make a loop twist for the ear, a pinch twist for the head, and another loop twist for the other ear. Then make the rest of the body the way you would for a dog.

For the trunk, inflate the 160 balloon to however long you want the trunk to be, then tie off both ends (and cut off any remaining balloon if necessary.) Wrap one end around the head/ears to attach it to the rest of the elephant. Twist a small pinch twist for the mouth and position the trunk so that it is between the mouth and the head. (You can wrap the trunk around the head again if you’d like.)

Helicopter #2

Helicopter

I’ve made a helicopter before (see this previous post.) I made the same helicopter balloon again, and then added two additional features.

First, I added tail rotors made with a 160 balloon. They are just like the main rotors, just smaller.

Second, I formed the cockpit using a small clear 260 balloon. I also put a small ball (with some pictures of faces attached) in the balloon, just for fun. I’ll have to find some little toy people to use for purposes like this!