Characters – Page 2 – Khool Balloons

Princess Belle

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.

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

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!

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.

Car

Here’s a red car balloon for my nephew that I decorated to look like “Lightning McQueen” from Pixar’s movie “Cars.” I made this based on Yonaimy’s video.

To make this balloon, you’ll need one red 260 for the car frame, a white 260 (or just a scrap if you don’t want to make it a bracelet), and a black 260 scrap for the wheels. Then draw the face, headlights, and any other car decorations you’d like to add.

[ Yonaimy’s video ]

Baby Mickey

It’s Baby Mickey!

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.)

Elmer’s Painters Paint Marker
Medium tip, white

[ Syan’s instructions for Baby Mickey (translated) ]

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!

Businessman balloon

Guy balloon with muscles — Christian with his balloon person

Boston is a wonderful city with great people. It’s also quite a transient city, with people coming and going for educational and professional opportunities. Now, it’s time again to bid farewell to one of our friends. Good luck and best wishes to you in your new job and all future endeavors, Christian! Boston will miss you – be sure to visit!

As you can see, the balloon person is dressed business casual with a blue shirt, gray tie, and black dress pants. Someone suggested to give the balloon person large biceps, as Christian’s pretty buff. 🙂 (BTW, can anyone guess what restaurant we’re in front of?)

Donatello (from TMNT)

Donatello TMNT turtle balloon animal — Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Happy Birthday Matt! I was trying to think of a popular cartoon character from my childhood to make and thought of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! I watched this cartoon every Saturday morning, as well as played the video games.

To make this balloon, check out this balloonmodels.com blog post for step-by-step instructions. I mostly followed the instructions, but not exactly. I used one 260 green for the legs, one 260 green for the arms, part of a 260 green for the head, a purple 160 scrap for the mask, part of a yellow (golden rod) 260 for the chest, a brown 260 for the shell, and a brown 160 for the staff. If I make this one again, I’ll change the design slightly.

[ Instructions from balloonmodels.com ]

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!

Keroppi

Here’s my first try at a Keroppi (one of the Sanrio characters) balloon. Actually, my second try. I tried to give Keroppi a striped shirt the first time, but it ended up looking like he was wearing a dress.

I didn’t have as much time for this balloon, and basically made the head similarly to the frog‘s head, and the body similarly to Hello Kitty‘s body.

You’ll need 5 balloons – two small white rounds for the eyes, one 350 of any color for the shirt (you won’t use the whole balloon), part of one 260 green for the arms, and one green 350 for the head and legs.

The head and legs are actually all connected/all part of one balloon – the balloon is just uninflated between the neck and legs. I was going to give him a bow tie, but I forgot!

Birthday cake and princess (Snow White)

Birthday cake and princess balloons — Birthday cake and princess

Happy birthday G! I made a princess that somewhat resembles Snow White (G’s favorite princess). And what’s a birthday without birthday cake?

Princess: To make the princess, I used this ~~video~~ to help me get started. For the head, I used a black 260 for the hair and a blush 350 for the head. For the body, I improvised and made a slightly more detailed dress. I used a blush 160 for the arms, a 260 shiny blue for the top of dress, and 350 and 160 yellows for the bottom of the dress. If you only have 260 balloons, that is fine. I just like to use different sizes so everything is more in proportion. You may not be able to tell from the picture above, but both the bottom and top of the dress (and the hair) use a bird body (or three-bubble roll through.) I used a red 260 scrap to make a small hair bow, and a white paint pen and different colored markers to draw in the facial features.

Birthday cake: For the birthday cake, I followed this video to make the base of the cake. I made my cake 5-sided instead of 6-sided. After making the base, I “decorated” the cake using 160 pink balloons. The candle is a pretty neat twist. The candle is basically made by using a tulip twist, which can be a little difficult the first time (it might pop when you take your finger out of the balloon.) You can wear this birthday cake as a hat too!

[ Video link: ~~Princess balloon~~ ]
[ Video link: Birthday cake ]

Hello Kitty

I made these Hello Kitty balloons for a friend’s birthday. (Happy Birthday A!) I’m glad Hello Kitty is still in!

To make this balloon: I followed this ~~youtube video~~ (Taken down.) Note that the girl teaching how to twist the balloon is an eleven year old!

Modifications: Instead of using all 260 balloons, I used a red 160 for the hair bow, a red 350 for the body, and a white 260 for the arms and legs, so that everything would be in more accurate proportions. (A 160 is one inch in diameter, a 260 is two inches in diameter, and a 350 is three inches in diameter. This was the first time I used a 350 balloon ever, so that was pretty exciting.) You can of course use other colors for the hair bow and body. The head is made from a 5” heart balloon.

I looked up some pictures of Hello Kitty online (sanrio.com) and used that to draw the face. I tried to keep the body relatively short (Hello Kitty’s head is bigger than the rest of her body!)

To attach the hair bow to the head, you will use what is called a raisin twist, which is a pretty cute and clever technique. You basically insert a small knotted piece of (uninflated) balloon into the balloon (the head) that you want to attach the other balloon (the hair bow) and grab that knot from the outside to attach the hair bow.

[ Hello Kitty video instructions: ~~Youtube video~~ (Taken down.) ]
Somewhat related (but not balloon-related): Hello Kitty Rice Crispy Treats