My favorite balloons to twist
Easy
Dragonflies
Apr 24th
Dragonflies
I’ve made dragonflies before, but I wanted to try them with the new Qualatex Chrome colors… and I really like them!
Some kids know what a dragonfly is, but not all kids have been exposed to them. But they are winged and fun in any case!
To make this balloon, check out Sergey’s tutorial video. 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.
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!
Another turtle
Jul 6th
I’ve twisted turtles before, and here’s another turtle design I like (from Juan Gonzalez.) Can’t have too many turtles!
I used 160 balloons instead of 260 balloons to make this balloon. It’s a quick one to make and super cute (like this tortoise)! I offered this turtle as one of four choices (along with the octopus) at the Kidsrock appreciation event.
Octopus
Jun 5th
Octopuses
The octopus is one really neat animal, so intelligent and interesting. I almost feel kind of bad for enjoying them at mealtime every now and then. In any case, they are a fun balloon animal to make.
I recently bought these 5″ round polka-dotted balloons, and they great to use for making octopuses. For the eyes, I use one 5″ round white balloon, twisted in half. For the green octopus shown, I used one 160 to form the eight arms. You basically twist one ~6″ bubble (or however long you want the first arm to be), followed by six loops twists, with another ~6″ section left for the eighth arm. This design is a nice, quick one, especially if you are twisting for a crowd and/or have less time.
For the blue octopus shown, I used two 160 balloons to form the arms. You can make a curly balloon (which I’m not a pro at yet.) It takes a little more time as you are using two balloons instead of one and making curly balloons, but you can see that the blue octopus looks a little fuller with longer legs. But whichever design you use, both are fun.
Icosahedron variant
Dec 31st
This is the last balloon I made in 2018. Because we were going to watch the ball drop (during the New Year countdown), I thought I’d make something like a ball. Next time I might put a lit round balloon inside. My niece said it’s like a disco ball.
This balloon is a variant of the icosahedron balloon I often make. (I also used it to make the battle mace.) The only difference is that when you twist each unit, you include an extra 3-5″ bubble on each end. Each balloon will be fully used – inflate to almost one inch remaining, and when nearing the end, push the air so that the whole balloon is filled.
Icosahedron variant
Simple shield
Sep 5th
Shield
A balloon sword is fun; having both a sword for offense and a shield for defense is even better! This balloon is fast to make and great for parties. I made these at a kid’s birthday party, which took place at a playground where kids could run around. Kids like being able to choose their own colors.
Check out this video tutorial from Gregg Ka-Zam:
Rabbit
Aug 10th
Quick rabbit
I often get asked for rabbits or bunnies. Here’s a quick bunny design I like (see video below by Sergey Loginov). It only requires one balloon and one scrap (for the eyes). I used a 160 balloon instead of a 260. I gave one of the rabbits a white tail, as suggested by my husband. 🙂
Check out the tutorial from Sergey:
One-balloon swords
Mar 20th
To go with my nephew’s Ninjago theme, we gave out these balloon swords at the end of the party. These are simple one-balloon swords, very easy to make, but lots of fun to play with. I made a couple dozen or so, with several extras in case they popped. Leave about an inch of the balloon uninflated when blowing up the balloon. I brought a pop-up laundry basket to hold all the swords.
One-balloon swords
This post begins a short series on balloon weapons.
Icosahedron ball
Dec 28th
Icosahedron Ball
This icosahedron balloon is one of my favorites to make. Kids love playing with this balloon and tossing it around. I’ve posted a smaller version of this balloon before, but this is the large version (more than a foot in diameter.) It is made from six 260 balloons with a large round in the middle. (I like to use a polka-dotted balloon.) Each 260 balloon is used to create one basic unit, and after twisting six of them, you connect the six units with the balloon ends to form the icosahedron (20 faces.)
Check out this paper from Vi Hart, which contains instructions and pictures for making this balloon.
Fruit
Sep 20th
Pear and grapes
I’ve been making many different foods recently. Here are healthier ones. 🙂
The pear balloon is pretty easy – I used a small green 5″ round and pushed some air towards the knot to get the pear shape. The leaves are made with two loop twists with a 160 green scrap, and the stem is a brown balloon scrap with just a little air in it to fill it without expanding the balloon. (At first I expanded the brown balloon, but I thought the proportions look better if you don’t – up to you.)
The grapes balloon is made with a purple 260 and green 160 scrap for the stem and leaves. There are many ways to twist the grapes. I twisted a cluster of 4 one-inch bubbles, then a cluster of 5 one-inch balloons, and twisted those two together. Afterwards, twist a cluster of 3 one-inch bubbles to form the bottom of the grapes, and then twist 2 or 3 more 1-inch bubbles and secure it with the intersection of the first two clusters. It may be a little hard to understand my from my description, but just give it a try and maybe you’ll come up with a new design. 🙂
If you like fruit, check out the strawberries I made before.
Heart eyes emoji
Sep 12th
Smiling face with heart-shaped eyes emoji
I first saw this balloon on youtube (see below), and thought it would be a fun balloon to make, especially for older kids. I hadn’t thought about making emojis before. I added one pinch twist on each side.
My husband didn’t know what this was, but my niece did! 
Birds
Apr 24th
Birds
Here’s my try at a simple one balloon bird. The bird design by Twistina is super cute, but I wanted a simpler bird.
The large bird to the right in the picture above is made with a single 260 balloon. You won’t need the entire balloon, and I wrapped a portion of the uninflated balloon around the body to hide it, before finishing off the balloon with the tail.
The two birds on the left are made with 160 balloons. As shown, you can easily add a different color for the beak and/or feet, if you are not in a rush. Using just a yellow/orange bubble for the beak will add a lot.
Fast panda bear
Apr 2nd
Panda bear (front)
Panda bear
I really like this panda bear design. It’s another fun and fast one, and you can use this design for other animals too. I followed this tutorial from jlomagic of Lacey, WA. You can even buy white round balloons with the face already printed to save you more time.
To make this balloon, you’ll need a round white and a black 160 or 260. The one thing I do differently is I twist the tail out of the round white balloon (because a panda’s tail is actually white.) If you use the plain white rounds, you’ll need a black marker to draw the face. For the black balloon, I happened to have some Qualatex Pearl Onyx Black 160s, which I like better than the regular Onyx Black.
I gave a couple of these balloons to a two and a three year old. The balloons survived quite a bit of squeezing and pulling!
BTW, La’s Rocks is a popular balloon shop – I’ve heard great things about them. They offer free shipping if you order more than $150. They have a lot of variety – I may order from them next time.
[ Video tutorial from jlomagic ]
One-balloon dinosaur
Mar 20th
T-Rex dinosaur
This one-balloon dinosaur (T-Rex) by Rob Driscoll is another fun and fast balloon. You’ll need a black marker to give the dinosaur sharp, scary teeth and eyes.
Check out Rob’s blog – he’s quite a talented balloon artist and photographer, and has been doing a creative series of “Twisted Cinema” balloon posts.
[ Rob Driscoll’s free tutorials ]
Two-balloon horse
Mar 14th
Horse
This two-balloon horse is a fun and fast one! You can use different colors instead of the usual black/brown/white; “My Little Pony” fans will love them. It can also stand on its own.
Recently, I’ve been looking for more balloon designs that can be made quickly. I twisted for a classroom of kids last week, and whenever you have a large group of kids (and limited time), you’ll usually need to stick to designs that only require one or two balloons. My next few posts will be on simple balloons.
To make this balloon, I followed this tutorial video by Michael Floyd. If all you can make is the basic balloon dog, this one is not much harder. You’ll just need to learn how to make pinch twists, which you’ll see in the video. I like Michael’s explanation of how to make the poodle tail. It may take a little time to figure out the poodle tail, but if you can’t get it, you can just slowly push the air to the other side of the balloon.
[ Video tutorial by Michael Floyd ]
Flower for wall decoration
Feb 15th
Flower with heart petals
To decorate one of the walls at a baby shower, I made three of the these flowers, one red (as shown), along with one pink flower and one white flower. The flower is almost a foot wide after being put together.
To make this balloon: the flower is made of five 6″ heart balloons for the petals, and a yellow balloon for the middle part. I used a part of a yellow 350 balloon (with two pinch twists), but you could also just use a small round yellow balloon (twisted in half). Inflate and tie three of the heart balloons together, and the other two heart balloons together, and then twist the two sets to connect them. Then slide the yellow balloon into place. The balloon will look the same on both sides. I tied a short piece of ribbon to the balloon and taped the other end to the wall.
I will try to put a video together about how to make this balloon. It’s pretty simple!
Pretzel
Jun 11th
I came across this pretzel balloon while reviewing some of the fun and super cool creations by Sage the Balloon Sage. It’s an easy balloon to twist and only requires one balloon. Add “salt” with a white paint marker. I always get a kick out of serving balloon foods to guests. 🙂
[ Balloon Sage’s pretzel balloon design video ]
Princess wand
Nov 24th
Princess wand
Speaking of princesses (continuing from my last post on Princess Mel)… all princesses need a wand!
Here I’ve made a simple wand that is probably ~2.5 feet long. It takes little time to make. I used one 260 balloon, one 160 balloon, and one heart balloon. Spiraling the balloons is quite easy, but looks really cool!
If you need instructions, just search for “princess wand balloon” on youtube.com There are many videos! The wand above is very similar to ChiTwister’s wand. If you’d like a more complex wand/scepter, check out this video from Sage the Balloon Sage.
This balloon reminds of a birthday cake candle. I’d just need to replace the heart balloon with a yellow/orange flame. I guess if I ever make a really big cake or need a candle for some other reason, I can try something like this!
Gift bow
Dec 31st
Last week, when I was wrapping presents and couldn’t find any ribbon, I ended up using a 160 balloon to add this gift bow to a small boxed gift. It was pretty simple and turned out pretty well! I should try making larger gift bows sometime.
Gift bow
Balloon hat
Jul 26th
Older kids and adults love fun balloon hats! (Smaller kids, not so much – they usually prefer something they can hold.)
One way to begin, is to make the basic balloon helmet. After that, just be creative! Use lots of different colors. Add a propeller and/or a balloon curly! Hats can draw quite a lot of attention.
Balloon hat
