My favorite balloons to twist
Easy-intermediate
Lobster
Mar 1st
She found her lobster! 🙂
Lobster
To make this balloon, I used a few red 260s, one red 160, and one small white round. I used Michael Floyd’s video below to get started, but made some changes here and there, including having a larger body, different antennae, and white round eyes.
I enjoyed learning a new technique from Michael while making the tail.
Flower wand
Dec 31st
Flower wand
Happy birthday, K! You’re a super kid!
I had limited time to make a balloon; but I love this wand design from Balloon Sage and finally found an occasion to make it. Check out his video for all the variations.
Big heart
Oct 28th
Big heart
Happy Birthday to my friend, Carmen! Now you’ve got two big hearts!
Check out Sue Bowler’s instructions for how to make this. It took me about 2 hours. You’ll use 79 Quick Links/Link-O-Loons and 78 5″ balloons. I inflated the balloons to 7″ and 9″, and the resulting heart was humongous (though I was still able to squeeze the balloon into our SUV for transport.)
Graduation Owl
May 28th
Graduation Owl
Congratulations to my friend Pam on her graduation! I’m so excited for you and your future students!
This graduation owl is similar to the owl I twisted before, designed by TaylorAnnArt. I added a graduation cap to it, attached by twisting an extra pinch twist in the head and tying the cap to it with the other end of the balloon used to form the tassel.
Penguins (again!)
Dec 28th
Penguin with hair bow
This penguin balloon design is a pretty popular one and a design commonly found when you search YouTube (see the Twister Sister video link below.) I’ve twisted this one before. It’s a fun, easy, and quick design, and I’ve probably made over 20 of them this past month – just because it’s the Christmas/winter season and also for E’s birthday. (Happy birthday E!) I’m reposting to show what you can add to the design to make it just a little khooler. 🙂
In the original post, I added a bow tie. Above, I’ve add a hair bow to the penguin. Below, I’ve added a scarf. Each addition is pretty simple and fast, but adds a lot and gives you a way to personalize each penguin.
Penguin with scarf
More pictures of penguins on-the-move! From left to right:
(1) A waddle of penguins ready for transport.
(2) Mr. Penguin traveled with me through the airport on my suitcase.
(3) Mr. Penguin got a window seat next to me. (Free advertising for Southwest.)
Penguins on-the-move
Check out this video from Holly:
Flower bouquets
Aug 5th
Flower bouquets are great for all kinds of celebrations – here’s a couple I made for a baby shower (Congrats T&L!) and birthday (Happy birthday C!)
Flower bouquet in vase
Flower bouquet
Tiger
Dec 30th
Happy Birthday K! This was made for a special birthday girl who loves all kinds of cats!
Tiger
Here’s a quick tutorial from the Terrace Balloon Man.
Dinosaur
Apr 23rd
Dinosaur
I’ve been looking for some dinosaur designs, and here’s one that I like. It only takes one 260 balloon for the body and one white scrap for the eyes. It took me a few tries to get the right amount of air in the balloon – I ran out of space to twist and had to decrease the amount of air. Check out Sergey’s tutorial video! Great for line work!
[ Sergey’s tutorial video ]
Dragonfly
Apr 18th
Dragonfly
Here’s another fun balloon!
To make this balloon, you’ll need one 260 balloon for the body, two 160s for the wings, and one small round for the eyes. Leave about 2.5″ uninflated for the 260. This balloon is easy to make – there are a few pinch twists, which can be tricky for new twisters. Check out Sergey’s tutorial video.
Owl
Apr 13th
Owl
Here’s a super cute owl, based on a design by TaylorAnnArt. Check out her video (shown below), where you’ll see instructions for both a simple version and an advanced version of this balloon. You’ll also see how it can be worn as a bracelet.
Turtle
Apr 8th
Turtle
Happy Birthday to my niece!
Here’s a nice turtle you can make with just four balloons. To make this balloon, you’ll need one green 260 for the turtle head and body, one green 260 scrap for the front two limbs, one brown 260 for the shell (four bubbles,) and one small white round for the eyes. I added a heart at the end.
Battle mace
Apr 4th
Mace
This battle mace will be the last in this short series of weapons.
The chain is the same as you would make for the nunchucks. I figured out how to make the spikey ball by changing the icosahedron balloon slightly.
I really like the spikey ball and will try some other designs with it!
Bow and Arrow
Mar 29th
Here’s another balloon based on a design by Michael Floyd – a bow and arrow. And you can actually shoot the arrow with the bow (takes a little practice.)
Bow and arrow
To make this balloon, you’ll need four 260 balloons. One for the bow, one for the handle, one for the string (uninflated), and one for the arrows.
[ Michael Floyd’s tutorial video ]
Nunchucks
Mar 23rd
Nunchucks
These nunchucks are easy to make, and fun to play with (and won’t cause any damage)!
You can make the handles in many different ways. I used two 160s for the two handles. I’ve also used 260s for the handles before. I used two gray 160s to make the chain. You could use just one, but then you have to push the air as shown in the video (or you can use the straw trick.)
The nunchucks pictured above are based on a design by Michael Floyd.
[ Michael Floyd’s tutorial video ]
[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.
Corn
Aug 30th
Bag of corn
A friend invited us to a BBQ, so I thought I’d bring some corn. 🙂 As I’ve said before, I love bringing balloon food to events. Kids and adults enjoy them.
To make this balloon, you’ll need three 160 balloons. I used yellow, and also a white and golden rod for different color kernels. You can use other colors for other varieties of corn. Also, you’ll need a white scrap for the eyes and a green 160 balloon for the husk if you’d like. You’ll use a simple weaving pattern. Check out Sergey’s video for instructions. Use a marker if you want to add a face.
Corn
What happens when you squeeze balloon corn? It becomes popcorn…hahaha
Cupcakes
Aug 21st
I was stopping by a brunch at a friend’s place and thought I’d bring cupcakes. I love balloon food. 🙂
Cupcakes
This balloon is quick to make, but requires a more advanced twist tulip twist and a couple pinch twists. You’ll need a 5″ round, a 160 balloon for the frosting, and a ~4″ red scrap for the cherry. I saw these in a video tutorial by Scott Kazan. I have so many blush 5″ rounds, and am glad I found another way to use them!
[ Video tutorial by Scott Kazan ]
Bird (using a Geo Blossom)
Dec 27th
Bird
This bird design by Brian Walendziak is super cute! I’ve been trying to figure out other ways to use geo blossom balloons. This design uses a geo blossom balloon turned inside out.
I made a couple small changes – the back of the balloon is all purple. Instead of twisting a cluster of four white bubbles, I used a purple 260 for two bubbles and a white 260 for two bubbles (Brian suggests using four white bubbles to save time.) You also don’t need to twist a bubble to attach the beak. You can just wrap the knot around the balloon where you want to attach it. If you do twist a cluster of four white bubbles, you could make the bird have a face on both sides.
Tortoise
May 6th
Tortoise
Here’s a couple tortoises I made by following a video from Rob Driscoll of mydailyballoon.com. The video is quite easy-to-follow! Check out mydailyballoon.com, which has a ton of excellent balloons.
The larger tortoise is made using 260 balloons (as seen in the video); the smaller one I made using 160 balloons. The smaller one has five bubbles for the shell instead of four.
Smaller tortoise
BTW, do you know the differences between a tortoise and a turtle?
