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My favorite balloons to twist

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Owl

Apr 13th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Birds

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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.

[ TaylorAnnArt’s tutorial video ]

owl

Turtle

Apr 8th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Easy-intermediate

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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.

turtle

Battle mace

Apr 4th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Easy-intermediate

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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!

mace

Bow and Arrow

Mar 29th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Easy-intermediate

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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 ]

bow and arrow

Nunchucks

Mar 23rd

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Easy-intermediate

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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 ]

nunchucks

One-balloon swords

Mar 20th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Easy

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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.

sword

Hat

Mar 15th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Hats

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Balloon hat

A five-sided birthday balloon hat made for my nephew. (Happy Birthday!) It uses the five-sided base that I like to use for cakes and hats.

hat

2016 in review

Jan 2nd

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Review

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Another year already? Happy 2017 everyone!
A look back at 2016 in balloons…

Princess Leia
Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony
Icosahedron Ball

Penguin with Santa hat
Reindeer (wearable)
Pear and grapes

Smiling face with heart-shaped eyes emoji
Corn
Cupcakes

Birds
Flower bouquet
Panda bear

Balloon hat
T-Rex dinosaur
Horse

Flower Bouquet
Flower with heart petals
Baby bootees

Monkey holding flowers

review

Princess Leia

Dec 31st

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Characters

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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.

princess, Princess Leia, Star Wars

[My Little] Pony

Dec 29th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Characters

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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!

[ Michael Floyd’s design ]

pony

Icosahedron ball

Dec 28th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Easy

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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.

ball

Penguin wearing a Santa hat

Dec 27th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Birds

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Penguin with Santa hat

Hope everyone is enjoying the end of 2016. I am off from work and have had the chance to do a little more twisting – I plan to get a few more posts in this year. I made a couple of these cute Christmas penguins to put in some gift bags last week.

To make this balloon, you’ll need a black 260, a white 260, a red 260 (scrap), and orange and white 160 scraps. I followed Vyacheslav’s tutorial video. He also adds a Christmas tree and present to the penguin balloon. Penguins are a great balloon to make – they are popular birds, super cute, and a great way to use up any extra white and black balloons.

[ Vyacheslav’s tutorial video ]

penguin

Reindeer (wearable)

Dec 25th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Characters

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Reindeer (wearable)

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.

[ Twister Sister’s tutorial video ]

Christmas, reindeer

Fruit

Sep 20th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Easy

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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.

food, fruit, grapes, pear

Heart eyes emoji

Sep 12th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Easy

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Smiling face with heart-shaped eyes emoji

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! Heart eyes emoji

[ Dan’s video tutorial ]

emoji, heart eyes

Corn

Aug 30th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Easy-intermediate

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Bag of corn

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

Corn

What happens when you squeeze balloon corn? It becomes popcorn…hahaha

[ Sergey Loginov’s video ]

corn, food

Cupcakes

Aug 21st

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Easy-intermediate

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I was stopping by a brunch at a friend’s place and thought I’d bring cupcakes. I love balloon food. 🙂

Cupcakes

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 ]

cake, cupcake, food

Birds

Apr 24th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Animals

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Birds

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.

bird

Birthday bouquet

Apr 7th

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Flower

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Flower bouquet

Flower bouquet

Happy happy birthday to my wonderful niece! Can’t believe it’s been 5 years already since I made you this princess balloon for your birthday.

For this bouquet, I added a heart and a Hello Kitty balloon. Different shapes are fun, and who doesn’t like Hello Kitty? Using such balloons also saves your fingers from having to twist additional flowers.

A couple of the flowers petals deflated by the next day. (That’s okay – you can’t really tell.) I’ll have to remember to let a little air out of the balloon before tying to help avoid popping/deflation.

bouquet, flower, hello kitty

Fast panda bear

Apr 2nd

Posted by KhoolBalloons in Animals

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Panda bear

Panda bear (front)

Panda bear

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 ]

panda, panda bear
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