Easy-intermediate
Monkey
Apr 4th
This is a monkey made for another special birthday girl. I had an interesting time making this balloon – I was down to my last three 260 brown balloons, I needed all three, and one of the arms popped!
I tied up the balloon that popped so that it wouldn’t lose any more air. I unraveled the other (still intact) arm and used it to form the back of the monkey and the tail. I had plenty of 160 browns, so I used one of those to form the arms. The end result turned out better than the original design I had planned!
You’ll need five balloons – three brown 260s, one blush 260, and one brown 160. Use one brown and part of one blush 260s for the head. You’ll use one brown 260 for one leg and the tail, one brown 260 for the other leg and the body, one 160 for the arm, and the remaining part of the blush 260 for the body. The body and the head are made separately. To attach the two, simply stuff the neck into the head. The hands and feet are just simple loop twists. Push the small bubble formed on the ends of the arms through the loop to secure them, and then position them so they look like thumbs.
Mr. Penguin and snow!
Dec 26th
This year, Atlanta experienced its first white Christmas since 1882! I remember always wishing for a white Christmas as a child (but now I get tons of snow living in the Northeast.) We got maybe almost 2 inches of snow, and many churches were closed due to the icy roads.
During our family Christmas Eve dinner, some of my cousins suggested I make a penguin balloon. So, being “snowed in” this morning, I took some black, white, and orange balloons and decided to give it a try. I designed this penguin balloon off the top of my head. Below is the resulting Mr. Penguin, playing in the historic Atlanta snow!
To make this penguin, I used two small white 5″ round balloons, two black 260s, an orange 160 (scrap), an orange 260 (scrap), and a red 160 (scrap).
First, I used one (entire) black 260 (inflated with a 4″ tail) to make the head and the first loop for the body. The eyes are made from a white round not fully inflated, twisted in half. The white part of the body is a white round. I then used the second black 260 for the back of the penguin body and tail (you don’t need to use the whole balloon.) The beak is a very small scrap of orange balloon, and the feet and bow tie from 160 scraps. I’m pleased with my first try at a penguin.
Fish balloon – one of the favorites!
Dec 1st
This fish balloon is always one of the favorites. It’s actually not too complicated to make – it’s the combination of color and shapes that makes this fish really cool.
Video instructions: How to make a balloon fish (Removed)
This fish uses five balloons – two 260s, one large round balloon for the body, and two small ones for the eyes. (If you don’t have small round ones, you can use a 260 to make the eyes with a couple loops twists.) Choose colors that will go well together.
You’ll basically make two pinch twists (which might be the most difficult part) for the lips and two loop twists for the fins.
After making the balloon, I like to give a kid the chance to draw in the eyeballs/eyelashes, which they always enjoy.
[ Video link : How to make a balloon fish ]
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas…
Dec 1st
This cute hippo design uses one 260 balloon and one pink heart balloon. I used a gray 260 balloon, but a silver, brown, or even light purple, light green, or light blue one would work well. This is another neat way to use a heart balloon. (I’ve seen a heart balloon used similarly in a cow balloon design as well.)
To make the balloon, follow these hippo balloon instructions by Bonnie Davis.
My comments:
When inflating the balloon, you’ll want to leave about a 5 inch tail. (If you leave less of a tail, you’ll run of space for the balloon to expand.)
Near the end, if you find that you’ve run out of balloon or don’t have room to make any additional twists, you can settle for only using four belly balloons (instead of five). Just deflate the remaining bubble that you don’t need, tie a knot, cut off part of the end if it’s too long, and wrap the knot around the body to hide it. Your hippo body will only be made of four bubbles and won’t be as big, but will still look pretty good.
[ Hippo balloon instructions by Bonnie Davis ]
Froggies! (and snake)
Nov 18th
I’ve seen some different frog designs, and here’s a pretty simple one that I like. It uses a green 260 balloon for the frog body, and a bit of yellow or white (you can use a leftover scrap) for the eyes.
See the video here. (The person in the video has also made many other videos which are available from the same site, and are worth a look.)
Comments on the video instructions: You will want to leave about a 4.5 inch tail when blowing up the green balloon. I quickly ran out of “balloon” and had to make sure not to make any bubbles too large. If you do find that you’ve run out of balloon, you can just make the two legs from a second green balloon and then attach them.
To make a simple snake: just make the head of the frog. When blowing up the balloon, leave a smaller tail (around 1.5 inches), as you won’t be making as many twists. After making the head, bend the rest of the balloon into a zig-zag shape. Push the air into the uninflated part of the balloon. I also attached an uninflated piece of leftover red balloon for the snake tongue.
[ Video instructions by Dale Obrochta ]
Helicopter
Nov 11th
Little kids (especially boys) seem to love trains, trucks, and other vehicles. So, when I came across instructions for this helicopter balloon, I was eager to try it out. This balloon takes two balloons – preferably one 160 (for the rotors) and one 260 (for the helicopter body.) If you only have 260s, two 260s will work just fine.
See the directions from Professor Wonder here.
My comments on the instructions: You will use up the entire balloon for the helicopter body. I found that I quickly ran out of “balloon” and I had to make a lot of the bubbles smaller than what the instructions called for. (For example, the 6 inch bubbles were more like 3.5-4 inch bubbles for me.)
When making the rotors, I inflated the balloon till there was 1-1.5 inches left, not the 3 indicated in the instructions. I wanted to use up as much as I could of the balloon for the rotors.
To take the pictures, I attached a piece of string to the rotors and hung up the helicopter. A helicopter belongs in the air anyway. 🙂 For a kid’s birthday party, if it fit your theme, I imagine you could hang the helicopters (and perhaps some airplanes?) around the room as decorations for a nice touch.