My favorite balloons to twist
KhoolBalloons
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Posts by KhoolBalloons
Roses
Mar 5th
Roses
Flowers are always nice to have for special occasions, or for any day, real or rubber :). Balloon flowers are nice, bright, and colorful, and don’t require watering (and actually do not like direct sunlight.)
I saw this rose design from Mr. Boma’s youtube video. To make this balloon, I used one pink 160, one red 160, and one green 160. The pattern for twisting petals may be a little tricky at first, but is pretty easy once you figure it out.
Roses
[ Mr. Boma’s rose video ]
Heart balloon
Feb 13th
Happy almost Valentine’s Day! According to Wikipedia, Valentine’s Day is the second most celebrated holiday around the world.
Here’s a heart to make for Valentine’s Day, or for any day!
3D heart
I saw this balloon on Michael Langerman’s YouTube video. It’s not too hard, but requires you to twist 79 bubbles.
To make this balloon, I used 1 red balloon and 3.5 pink balloons. You of course could use all the same color or any combination of colors. You’ll basically start by twisting loops of bubbles, just the same way you would make a necklace. The red outline requires a 15 bubble loop; you’ll also need two 20-bubble loops, a 12-bubble loop, and two 6-bubble loops. I used one balloon to make both the 12-bubble and 6-bubble loops, and used half a balloon to make one of the 6-bubble loops.
Try to make all the bubbles the same size. The more consistent the size, the better. And make sure to twist each bubble a good number of times so it won’t come undone easily.
After you finish making the loops, you’ll make a couple more simple twists and then put all the chains together carefully to make the heart balloon. (Check out the video!) This balloon is pretty cool. It’s 3D and the back is the same as the front.
Love Puppy
Feb 8th
Love puppy
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, this balloon is a great one to twist. This balloon is from ChiTwister’s YouTube video.
This balloon is pretty fast and easy to make. The twists are pretty simple. The most difficult part may be doing pinch twists if you have trouble with those.
Love Puppy
[ ChiTwister’s YouTube video ]
Chimpanzee
Feb 3rd
Chimpanzee
This chimpanzee is based on Mr. Boma’s chimpanzee balloon. The video is great and very easy to follow.
To make this balloon, you’ll need two brown balloons (with ~5 inch tail) for the body/arms/legs, one blush for the face/ears/chest, and optionally a white scrap balloon for the eyes. (I was going to make a black and gray gorilla based on this design, but didn’t get to it.) You can easily make this a monkey by adding a tail.
In addition, I used a brown 160 balloon to give this chimpanzee a back, as you can see in the picture below. I tied the end of balloon used for the back to the eyes to help keep it in place.
This balloon will easily stand on its own, which is pretty cool.
Chimpanzee
Cat
Jan 30th
Cat
I don’t really like cats – they’re sneaky and always seem like they want to torment me. Sigh. (Maybe one day I’ll be more comfortable with them…)
But I came across a couple videos on making a cat balloon, and decided I’d make one too. This cat is a combination of some different things I’ve seen, and I tweaked the face a little to get it the way I wanted it to look.
To make this balloon: I used a black 260 balloon (with ~5 inch tail) for the body, a white 260 to make the face and paws, and a red scrap balloon for the nose. First, make the paws, which is essentially 4 pinch twists. Then make the body, inserting the paws when you twist the legs. Lastly, make the face and attach it to the body.
To take this photo, I put a piece of tape on the paws to help it stand. (If you look closely, you’ll see the tape.)
[ Gilberto’s cat video | papaballoon’s cat video]
Orderly Tangle
Jan 26th
Orderly tangle / regular polylink
This is called an “orderly tangle” (or also “regular polylink.”) This particular tangle is made up of four triangles, which when woven together in a certain symmetric fashion form a stable structure. You may have seen tangles in the form of puzzles before. My college roommate was really into puzzles and had a bunch of wooden ones. I first saw tangles that were made from balloons on Vi Hart’s web site.
To make this balloon, I used four 260 balloons. I used my neon colors for a cool color combination. I left around a 3-4 inch tail (instead of inflating the entire balloon) as I didn’t want the final structure to be too big/loose. There are no tricky twists – it’s just four triangles. But it is a geometric exercise to figure out how to put it together. You’ll have to make each triangle one at a time as you figure out how to weave them. I added a 5″ round balloon in the middle for fun.
To learn more about these cool geometric structures, check out this video by George Hart, who has lots of photos and videos of really cool mathematical sculptures at his web site and YouTube channel.
“The Unpoppables” show
Jan 24th
I watched this show called “The Unpoppables” on YouTube and thought it was totally awesome!
“The Unpoppables” is about three balloon artists working together at New Balloon Art, who design and make humongous, incredible balloon structures for various events. The show reminded me of “Cake Boss” (which was also on TLC)…except this one is about balloons!
The Eiffel Tower, a balloon wedding gown worn by a bride during an actual wedding, a castle you can drive through, a life size fire truck, a couch you can sit on… check it out! There 6 episodes.
Hamster
Jan 13th
Hamster
Here’s a cute little hamster I saw on Holly Hopper’s youtube channel. Here’s the video link.
To make this balloon you’ll need four balloons – one white 260 balloon and two brown 260 balloons for the body, a small white round for the eyes, and a pink scrap for the nose.
A friend mistook this balloon for a chipmunk, and you could probably easily make some changes to the basic structure and twist a chipmunk instead. Next time I make this hamster, I’ll have to try adding some small ears so that it looks more like a hamster.
Panda bear
Jan 6th
Panda bear
I saw this panda bear balloon while browsing YouTube one day. People have asked me to make a panda bear before, so here’s one version! (I’ll try making my own version sometime.)
This panda bear YouTube video is in Spanish, but you should be able to follow along with the video even if you don’t know Spanish! The balloon artist in the video made a whole set for the panda bear, with bamboo and everything!
To make this balloon, you’ll need one white 260 balloon and one black 260 balloon. This panda bear is somewhat similar to other basic teddy bear designs, but slightly more complicated as you are twisting a black and a white balloon together at the same time. It’s neat how for some parts of the balloon, the color on the back is different from the color on the front. You’ll have plenty leftover of both balloons, so you won’t have to worry about balloon management too much.
[ Yonaimy’s panda bear video ]
2012 in review
Dec 31st
Happy New Year everyone!
As we look forward to what 2013 may bring, here’s a look back at the balloon posts from 2012.
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- Cow
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- Christmas Tree
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- Baby Mickey Mouse
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- Hello Kitty with flower
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- Ice cream cone balloon
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- One-balloon monkey (side view)
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- Balloon ball – icosahedron
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- Strawberry
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- Bouquet of flowers
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- Flower made with a Geo Blossom balloon
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- Guy balloon with a tie
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- Sports car
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- Propeller hat
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- Rainbow hat
Cow
Dec 21st
I made this balloon for a little boy who LOVES cows.
Cow
To make this cow, you’ll need 4 balloons – two white 260s, one black 260, and one 6″ heart balloon. Then add the eyes, spots, and other details with a black marker. I followed this youtube video by Holly Hopper. This cow design uses basic twists (nothing tricky), and looks great. You can easily add horns too (as shown in the video.)
[ Holly Hopper’s youtube video to make a cow ]
Christmas Tree
Dec 15th
Christmas Tree
Merry [almost] Christmas!
I’ve been meaning to make something Christmas-related, and finally made this tree! I didn’t want to make a very big tree, and so I used 160 balloons and not 260 balloons. This tree is about 8-10 inches tall.
I’ve seen Christmas trees made in different ways – by making each layer separately and then joining them, or by using all round balloons.
To make this balloon, I used 3 green 160 balloons, a gold 160 balloon to decorate the tree, and some scrap 160 and 260 balloons for the ball ornaments.
I started by making a pinch twist, and then 3 small loop twists (connected at the same spot), followed by a small bubble and then another set of loop twists, followed by a small bubble and then another set of loop twists, and so on…, and ending with a small bubble at the bottom. The lower the level of branches, the more the loop twists, and the larger the loop twists. Whenever you’re about to run out of the green balloon, just pop the remaining balloon, tie a knot, and wrap it around the balloon; then attach another green balloon and start again where you left off. Lastly, I twisted a series of bubbles (using the gold 160), and used different colors of balloon scraps to make ball ornaments to decorate the tree.
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!
One-balloon monkey
Oct 7th
One-balloon monkey
This monkey is a great one to add to your arsenal – it only requires one balloon and is a fast one to make (and cute!) I’ve blogged about another monkey I’ve made before, but that one requires multiple balloons and is a little more complicated. If you have a lot of kids to twist for, you’ll want to make one can be made quickly.
I first saw this one-balloon monkey on Michael Floyd’s web site, where he has posted a very nice video on how to make the balloon. Check it out!
One-balloon monkey (side view)
Here’s a monkey I made out of a 160 balloon. To make this balloon, I inflated the balloon a little more than halfway.
Because the balloon is thinner and the monkey is smaller, there was plenty of balloon to give the monkey a three-balloon body, some small feet, and a long tail.
Balloon ball (icosahedron)
Oct 1st
Here’s a balloon ball. Sure, you could just inflate a round balloon, but this is cooler. 🙂
Balloon ball – icosahedron
In mathematical terms, it’s actually an icosahedron – a polyhedron with 20 triangular sides. It may look complicated, but because of its symmetry and basic units, it’s actually quite easy to put together. I first saw this on Vi Hart’s web site, where she has posted great instructions for this icosahedron, as well as many other mathematical shapes, such as fractals, tangles, and other polyhedra! Check it out!
To make this balloon, I took three 160 balloons and cut each in half. Each section was then used to make one of the six units. (I wanted to make an icosahedron that wasn’t too big.)
If you’d like to read a mathematical paper written about balloon twisting, check out: Computational Balloon Twisting Theory: The Theory of Twisting Polyhedra, co-authored by Hart, Martin Dermaine, and Erik Dermaine (who was one of my college professors!)
Strawberries
Jun 13th
Strawberry
I’ve been trying to think of ways of using my heart balloons, and here’s a good one!
Strawberries
You’ll need just one heart balloon, and a part of a green 160 balloon for the stem. To attach the stem to the heart balloon, you’ll use the raisin twist (the same way you attach Hello Kitty’s hair bow.)
Lastly, draw the seeds on the strawberry with a black marker.
These are really cute and really simple! And young kids will be able to recognize them easily!
Bouquet of flowers
Mar 25th
Bouquet of flowers
Bouquet of flowers in a vase
Flowers are a great gift for any occasion, and so colorful. As long as you can make a simple flower, you can make a bouquet of flowers! You can also easily add variety by making flowers of different sizes, colors, shapes, and number of petals.
To make this:
Use two yellow and two blue 260 balloons (or whatever colors you prefer) to make the four flower heads. Use two green 160 balloons for the stems of the four flowers (or use 260 balloons if you don’t have 160s). Tie one flower head to each end of the green balloon and twist in half. (Two stems are made from each balloon.) You can twist some leaves for the flowers if you’d like. Another option is that you can inflate a small scrap if you’d like the middle of the flower to be a different color. After you’ve arranged your flowers, use a part of a 160 balloon to make the ribbon to hold the flowers together.
Oh, and remember, balloon flowers (balloons in general) actually don’t like the sun – they last longer in the shade. 🙂
Flower (made with a Geo Blossom)
Mar 18th
Flower made with a Geo Blossom balloon
I have a whole bag of Geo Blossom balloons and have yet figure out what to do with them. The most common and obvious thing to make with Geo Blossom balloons is a flower, and so I made this simple flower. It looks the same on both sides.
To make this balloon, I used one Geo Blossom, one small white round, and one green 260. With the white round balloon, first make a small bubble, tie a knot as far in in as possible, thread it through the Geo Blossom, and then make a second bubble on the other side of the Geo Blossom. Then, tie a knot and wrap it around the center of the balloon (like a pinch twist) to hide the knot. Afterwards, inflate the Geo Blossom, and use the green 260 to make the stem and leaves of the flower.
