June 2011 – Khool Balloons

Hummingbirds

Hummingbird balloon animal — Hummingbirds

This hummingbird has a very similar design to the butterfly. I saw this design in Marvin Hardy’s Advanced 260 Balloon Magic book.

The hummingbird is easier to make than the butterfly. There is one less twist for the wings. You’ll leave a couple inches of uninflated balloon for the beak.

In the picture is a blue hummingbird made with a 260 balloon and a second smaller pink one made using half of a 160 balloon.

If I were a butterfly…

I got my first real close up view of a butterfly of this year this past Sunday. It landed on the bright green shirt of someone sitting a few feet away. So beautiful!

The pink butterfly shown here was made using a single 260. The other one was made using one yellow 260 balloon and a scrap black 260 balloon.

Back of butterfly balloon animals — Butterflies (back)

Twisting the one-balloon butterfly is a little more difficult than twisting a “dog” balloon – the butterfly consists of a number of twists that all go around the same joint, which makes things a little tight.

As you can see, the wings are twisted similarly to how you would twist flower petals; they are just different sizes – two are smaller and two are bigger. (When twisting flower petals, you normally locate the midpoint and twist the balloon there. With these wings, you locate a point a few inches from the midpoint and twist the balloon there.)

Next time, I’ll try using a 160 balloon for the body, and will draw some spots/designs on the butterfly wings using markers! Decorating the butterfly might be a fun activity for kids too!

Balloon bride

This balloon was made for a very good friend of mine for her bridal shower. 🙂

This one is similar to the princess balloon I made before, except the dress is slightly different and I added a necklace. I’m all out of white 260 balloons, so I used a 160 and a 350 white balloons instead. The hardest part for me is probably drawing the face (I can’t erase! I should get some new thin markers too.) I need to come up with some new hairdos – people keep telling me the hairdo makes them think of Olive Oil.

Congratulations to the soon-to-be-wedded Katie (and Eric!)

An S balloon for S

For my friend’s birthday, I made a balloon version of her. I made this one up as I went along, and used a number of colors, which takes a little more time. (You need to blow up/tie each balloon segment.)

This balloon has 15 balloon segments:

Head: One blush 350 balloon segment is used for the face and ears.
Nose: One blush 160 balloon bubble.
Hair: One black 350 balloon segment and two black 160 balloons. Wrap the ends around the ears to attach.
Neck: One blush balloon segment. Wrap the end around the pinch twists of the shirt to attach. The other end is squeezed in between the hair and face balloons.
Shirt: Two red 260 balloon segments. One segment is used to make the sleeves, basically just two pinch twists at each end. The second is used for the rest of the shirt, and twisted with first balloon with two pinch twists at the top, where you will attach the neck.
Arms: Two blush 160 balloon segments, one for each arm.
Shorts: One blue 160 balloon segment. Each side of the shorts is basically a three-body roll-through with two pinch twists at each end, where you will attach the legs.
Legs/feet: Two blush 260 balloon segments, one for each side.
Shoes: Two brown 160 balloon segments, one for each side.

Happy Birthday S! And have a great trip!