My favorite balloons to twist
Intermediate
Princess Belle
Apr 13th
My niece is really into princesses, and so for her birthday this year, I made her a Princess Belle. Last time I made Snow White.
Princess Belle
I made this balloon based on unicaw89′s Princess video. He even includes a rose in a glass jar balloon, but I was running short on time.
To make this balloon, you’ll need 3 yellow 260s and scrap 350 for the dress, a blush 350 scrap for the head, a brown 260 for the hair, and a blush 160 (or 260) for the arms and legs. I added a pink sash and hair bow with a pink 160. I made the shoes/feet a little differently from what is seen in the video – I used a 160 yellow scrap for the shoes. The legs are not too much longer than the dress, and so this balloon is pretty stable and can stand on its own. The dress is made using a pretty neat flower weave, as you’ll see in the video.
Software Engineer
Mar 23rd
Balloon Person
Congrats to one of my former teammates Al on his retirement! Al was one of the original people who built the very successful software product that I’ve been working on. I made this for his last day at work. Thanks for everything, and best wishes in your new endeavors!
The design of this balloon is similar to the balloon I made of my friend Christian, except that I drew in the eyes instead of using balloon eyes. I also made a 4-bubble body instead of a 3-bubble body. You might notice the tie is made with a 260 balloon instead of a 160 balloon. And I gave him a right hair part.
Baby Mickey
Dec 11th
It’s Baby Mickey!
Baby Mickey Mouse
Baby Mickey (back)
I made this balloon for a baby shower. (Congrats Tses!) Mickey Mouse was one of my favorite childhood characters – baby Mickey seemed appropriate for a baby shower!
To make this balloon, I used a blush 260 for the face, black 260 for the head/ears, blue 260 for the body/legs, and white 160 for the hands/arms. I also used a black marker and white paint pen to draw in the eyes, and a pink marker for a little pink on the cheeks.
I followed these instructions, which are actually in Japanese. You can use Google translate to see the page in English (it’s not a perfect translation, but you’ll get the idea.)
Baby Mickey crawling
 Elmer’s Painters Paint Marker Medium tip, white |
Ice cream cone
Oct 21st
Ice cream cone balloon
Here’s a fun food balloon. This balloon requires a few different neat techniques to make the cone itself and to attach the cherry to the ice cream. No glue was used. This is 100% balloon!
I got the idea for this balloon when I saw this ice cream cone balloon by Mishel Sabbah. However, I didn’t have any Geo Blossoms of the right color, so I made the “ice cream” part a little differently. Also, my version is smaller and I added a tulip twist to the cherry.
To make this balloon, I used five blush 160 balloons for the cone (you could also use goldenrod or brown), one white 160 and one 5″ round for the ice cream, and a small scrap of a red 160 for the cherry.
The cone is made the same way you’d make the base of the cake balloon, except you shorten the bubbles as you go to achieve the cone shape. You won’t use up the entire blush 160 balloon, and can use one of the resulting scraps to attach the cherry, and another scrap to put the entire balloon together.
I should explain how to attach the cherry in more detail in another post, but it basically requires inserting the (blown-up) cherry into the white round, tying it to the white round, pushing the cherry out of the round balloon (turning it inside-out), and then inflating the round balloon.
If you like sprinkles, you can draw some “sprinkles” with some colorful markers.
Happy Birthday Em!
Hello Kitty with flower
Oct 14th
Hello Kitty with flower
Here’s Hello Kitty again! (See my Hello Kitty last post.) This time, I made her limbs a little shorter and gave her a flower.
Hello Kitty’s real name is actually Kitty White, and she was born in 1975 in the suburbs of London. Did you know she also has a twin sister named Mimmy, who wears her bow on the other side? Or that Hello Kitty is worth 5 billion dollars a year (as of 2010)?
This balloon isn’t too hard to make, but it requires a lot of knot tying (and more knots take more time.) I counted nine knots, plus two knots for the flower, plus a raisin twist. (Because you don’t use the entire balloon, you have to detach/cut off the unused portion of the balloon and tie a knot.) There are a few pinch twists as well, which may be a little more difficult for newer twisters. But it’s a fun one to make!
Happy Birthday Angela!
