My favorite balloons to twist
Characters
Peppa Pig
Jun 29th
Peppa Pig
I followed Sergey Loginov‘s videos to twist this balloon. I substituted a heart for the big round balloon.
This design uses quite a few interesting techniques, especially for the head. The ears are attached on the inside, by tying them after turning the head balloon inside out (similar to how the cherry is attached to the ice cream cone balloon, and how the orange carrot nose is attached to Olaf.) The head also has two balloons inside of it, to help achieve the shape of the head. I’m not anywhere near a master at manipulating balloons inside balloons yet, but I hope to get better at it!
I use dry erase markers when I can to draw the face – then I can erase if needed. But sometimes I only have certain colors in permanent markers.
Happy birthday, S!
Gudetama
Apr 8th
Gudetama is a “lazy egg,” one of Sanrio’s newer cartoon characters (2014). I made this balloon for my niece’s birthday, although I could not give it to her, as we are all sheltering-in-place during this pandemic. But we were able to celebrate remotely. 🙂
Gudetama, the lazy egg
This balloon is pretty easy to make. Check out Chibicoro Balloons for photos and instructions, and lots of other cute balloons. The text is in Japanese, but you can use Google Translate.
While everyone is at home, Qualatex hosted a week-long online balloon convention, which was really cool. You can check out the recordings on their YouTube channel.
I think we all feel a bit like Gudetama on some days, especially during this pandemic. Hope everyone is doing okay, and staying healthy and safe!
Happy bride
Feb 15th
Bride
Happy bridal shower to the lovely bride-to-be! I’m so excited for my friend Kirsten and her upcoming wedding.
To twist the hair, check out JocelynBalloon’s princess hair video.
To twist the dress, check out Unicaw89’s princess video.
Tigger
Oct 8th
Tigger
Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Hopefully you’ll recognize this balloon as Tigger from Winnie-the-Pooh. I made this for a friend who used to dress up in a Tigger costume! Happy Birthday Chi!
To make this balloon, I used 3 orange 260s for the head, arms, body, and tail, as well as an orange 350 for the legs. I also used a blush 260 and 350 for the head and body, a pink scrap for the nose, and a red scrap for the tongue. Afterwards, I added the stripes and eyes with a black marker.
Snoopy the Flying Ace
May 15th
Snoopy the flying ace
It’s Snoopy the Flying Ace! This balloon was for a friend who has logged many hours in the sky. Congrats on your graduation and can’t wait to hear about your new adventures!
I saw this on Pinterest and really liked the design. So I figured out how to make it from the photo. Next time, I will try to make the goggles differently.
To make this balloon, I used a couple white 260s for the body and legs, a white 160 for the arms, a white heart for the head, two green 260s for the hat, a red 160 for the scarf, a brown 160 and black 160 scrap for the goggles, and a black scrap for the nose. The body is pretty straightforward – the head is the more complicated part. The nose was attached the same way I attached the cherry to the ice cream. I also twisted a side wall bubble in the heart balloon to help attach the head.
Princess Leia
Dec 31st
Closing out 2016 with this balloon…
Princess Leia
I’ve been wanting to make another Star Wars balloon of some sort, having recently watched “Rouge One” and “A New Hope” again. Thank you, Princess Leia!
To make this balloon, you’ll need:
- two brown 160s for the hair
- one 6″ blush Quick Link for the head
- one white 160 for the arms
- one blush 160 scrap for the hands
- one gray 160 for the belt
- one white 350 and one white 260 for the body
This balloon design is similar to many of the other princesses I have done, but I took some time figuring out how I wanted to do the hair and head. I used a Quick Link for the head. (Quick Link balloons have tying places at two ends of the balloons, both of which can be used to attach the balloon.) I used the two ends of the Quick Link to attach the hair. If I had remembered, I would also have inserted a raisin into the balloon to attach the head to the body. To create the hair buns, I used the same technique used to create the cupcake frosting.
[My Little] Pony
Dec 29th
Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony
Happy Birthday to K, celebrating the big 5! She quickly recognized this balloon as “Pinkie Pie” from My Little Pony (one of my childhood toys!)
To make this balloon, you’ll need two pink 260s (one for the head, one for the body), a white 350 scrap, a light blue 160 scrap (for the eyes), and three dark pink 160s (for the hair.) For the head, I used Michael Floyd’s design. I like how he adds the blue balloon for the eyes. The head design is similar to what you might use to make the head of a seahorse. For the body, I used the basic body you’d use to make a four-legged creature (the basic dog), but with a three-bubble roll-through (aka bird body.) Connect the head to the body, and then add the hair. (Making the curls for the hair is also fun. I needed to ask my brother to help me hold the balloon for that, as I use a pump to inflate and have no free hands.) If I had the right markers, I would have added the cutie mark.
Happy Birthday K!
Reindeer (wearable)
Dec 25th
Reindeer (wearable)
Merry Christmas everyone!
I made these two wearable reindeer balloons for the kids next door. It was so much fun watching them run around the house with these balloons, singing “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.” Boundless energy!
To make this balloon, you’ll need two brown 260s for the head and body, one dark brown 160 for the antlers, and several 260 scraps: white for the eyes, black for the eyeballs, and red for the nose. I made this based on Twister Sister’s tutorial, with a few changes: I used 260 balloons instead of 350 balloons and I also added some ears. You could easily turn this into a hat.
Yoda
Dec 18th
Yoda
This balloon was made for a co-worker who is retiring. He was my first mentor at my first job out of college, and I have learned so much from him! Congrats Dave!
To make this balloon, I followed a video by Flash the Magician. My husband has some suggestions for changes, so I may try to modify the design some.
Leonardo from TMNT
Mar 15th
Leonardo from TMNT
Happy Birthday to my super energetic and fun nephew! His favorite Ninja Turtle is Leonardo, the leader of the team!
I’ve made Donatello before, following instructions from balloonmodels.com. This time, I figured out a different design.
To make this balloon, I used a green 350 for the head (with the same design as before), a brown and a goldenrod 260s for the shell, green 160s for the arms, a green 350 for the legs, two gray 160s for the swords, and brown 160s for the arm bands and leg bands. I had meant to take a picture of the new design of the shell, but forgot! I finished the balloon by using a a white paint marker and black marker for the face.
Minnie Mouse birthday
Jan 26th
Minnie Mouse Cake
This birthday cake was made for a fun, energetic little girl who LOVES Minnie Mouse! Happy Birthday Kylen! 🙂 It was so great to celebrate with you! Can’t believe you’re growing up so quickly!
This balloon is a birthday cake balloon with a Minnie Mouse balloon on top (the feet are squeezed in.) I had thought about twisting Minnie Mouse permanently in on top of the cake, but this way, you can easily take Minnie off and just hold the Minnie Mouse balloon if you want.
The balloon cake uses the same pentagonal base design you see in most of my balloon cakes. Minnie Mouse is made based on this design by Syan. I need to work on the cheeks a bit so Minnie is less like a chipmunk. Not pictured here is a heart balloon that I attached to Minnie’s hand with “Happy Birthday!” written on it.
[ Syan’s instructions for Minnie Mouse – translated version ]
Olaf the snowman
Dec 26th
Happy holidays!
No white Christmas here this year, unlike the Christmas four years ago. But I made a snowman anyway. 🙂
Olaf the Snowman for Disney’s Frozen
Here’s a snowman designed to look like Olaf, the snowman from the popular movie “Frozen.” I followed the video by Changsunny (with a couple small modifications.) I liked this one the best out of all of the other many balloon Olafs I’ve seen. It’s a simple design, but requires a few more advanced twists.
To make this balloon, you’ll use a 6″ white heart balloon for the head, a [small part of a] white 260 for the middle part of the body, and a round 5″ balloon for the bottom. Also, you’ll need the ends of two brown 160s for the stick arms, a small scrap orange 160 for the nose, and an uninflated scrap black balloon for the “hair.”
The one thing I did differently was the nose. I made it longer and used a different technique to attach the nose. In the video Changsunny uses tape, but with this technique you only use balloons. It’s a little more difficult, but if you have the time, then I think it’s worth it.
To attach the nose, turn the heart balloon inside out; then inflate the orange balloon while it’s inside the heart balloon and tie. Afterwards, inflate the heart balloon, but don’t pull the knot all the way through (you’ll be deflating it later on.) Figure out where you want to attach the nose to the heart, grab the knot from the nose, twist, and tie the nose to the heart with an uninflated balloon. Lastly, deflate the heart balloon, and turn it inside out again while pushing out the nose. This might be a little hard to understand – check out Patricia Bunnell’s dog design to see the photos for how she attaches the nose of the dog.
The one other thing I might do differently next time is use a larger round balloon for the bottom of the snowman to give it a slightly larger base. While trying to attach the bottom balloon, I actually popped the round balloon twice and had to put in less air when I tried again. A larger round balloon would be less likely to pop.
Do you want to build a snowman?
[ Changsunny’s Olaf video ]
[ Patricia Bunnell’s dog design to see how to attach the nose ]
Princess Mel
Nov 19th
Princess Mel
This balloon is for a super cool person, who also happens to be a football-playing princess. We will all miss you very much Mel! (At least you’re moving to a place not too far, and we’ll see you again soon!)
I’ve made a Princess Belle and Snow White before. The Princess Mel balloon is similar to Princess Belle, except for the head and hair. (You may want to view Unicaw89’s princess video.) For that I used two-three black 160s and a 5″ round (I bought a bag of blush 5″ round balloons for this very reason!) A raisin twist is used to help attach the hair. I watched JocelynBalloon’s excellent video to make the hair – it’s pretty cool how the hair is done.
[ JocelynBalloon’s princess hair video ]
[ Unicaw89’s princess video ]
Emmet
Apr 8th
Emmet
It’s Emmet from “The Lego Movie!” I made this one for an 8 year old birthday boy. I haven’t seen the movie myself yet, but I heard it’s pretty good!
To make this balloon, I used a large round balloon for the head, some brown 160s for the hair, an orange 350 and 260 for the body, an orange 350 for the legs, a blue 260 for the arms, and yellow 160 scraps for the hands.
I spent the most time trying to figure out the head/hair. I ended up using 4 raisins to help hold the hair. To try to make the round balloon less round and more flat at the top and bottom, there is an uninflated bottom pulling the top and the bottom of the balloon together. I used a raisin to attach the uninflated balloon to the top inside of the balloon.
A raisin twist is a method to attach a balloon to another balloon where there normally would be no place to attach a balloon. You do this by putting a raisin (a balloon knot) into the balloon, then grabbing the knot from the outside and twisting/tying a balloon around it. See this balloon forum for some pics.
Lastly, I used a white paint pen and Cra-Z-Art metallic markers to draw the details on the balloon.
My Melody
Mar 26th
My Melody
My Melody is a friend of Hello Kitty’s. I made her after seeing Yonaimy’s tutorial video. I really like her design of this balloon.
To make this balloon, you’ll need some white balloons – part of a 160 (for the flower), part of a 350 (for the face), and two 260s (for the body), and either red of pink balloons depending on what color you want her to wear – part of a 160 (for the lower part of her hood), part of a 260 (for the part of the hood that goes around her head), and a 350 (for part of the the hood covering the ears and the back of the head). I also used a yellow scrap for the flower.
The video is in Spanish, but it is very easy to follow!
There are a number of birthdays coming up, so stay tuned for more balloons! (Happy Spring Birthdays!)
Minion 2
Jan 22nd
Minion balloon
This minion is similar to the minion I made before, but this one is much larger. (First time I used a 646 balloon!) It is based on unicaw89′s design, with a few small modifications. I also gave it black gloves, and a flower and a heart balloon to hold.
I used my black dry erase marker to draw the mouth and my white Elmer’s Painters paint marker to fill in the teeth. I also used my purple Cra-Z-Art marker to write on the heart balloon.
Happy Birthday Susan! 🙂
Congrats to the Boston Red Sox!
Oct 31st
Wally the Green Monster
Congrats to the Boston Red Sox, 2013 World Series Champions!
We’ve had many long nights of exciting baseball. Thanks for a great season!
Here’s Wally the Green Monster, who I made while watching Game 6 last night. He’s composed of a mix of 350, 260, and 160 balloons.
Update:
We brought Wally to the Boston Red Sox Rolling Rally and saw all the Red Sox players on the Duck Boats! Wally got the attention of a number of kids and got some photos taken of him. (One toddler kept calling him Elmo!) What a fun event on a beautiful day!
Wally at the Boston Red Sox Rolling Rally
Elmo
Oct 28th
Elmo
Everybody loves Elmo! Especially those toddlers!
I’ve made Elmo a few times before – a little differently each time. The head I usually make the same way. The body I make differently depending on how much time I have. Here I’ve used a 5-bubble body, and made the arms and legs separately. Or make the arms/legs using simple loop or link twists, and one bubble or a 3-bubble roll-through for the body.
In case you’d like to see some video, here are a couple tutorials:
ChiTwister’s video tutorial
Yonaimy’s video tutorial (easier)
Minion
Oct 21st
Minion (from “Despicable Me”)
Even if you haven’t seen the movie “Despicable Me yet,” you’ve probably seen these little yellow minion creatures around.
This minion balloon is based on unicaw89’s design. I made a few modifications and used smaller balloons – a 350 for the head, 260s for the arms and legs, and 160s for the overalls. I made the eye/goggles a little differently – I used a white 350 scrap and a black 260 scrap to make the eyeball, using something like a tulip twist/link. I wrapped an uninflated gray 350 around the eyeball, and tied an uninflated black 350 to the back of the eyeball for the band.
Next time, I’ll give the minion some black gloves.
Happy Birthday Jeremy!
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.
