My favorite balloons to twist
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 ]
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.)
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 ]
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 ]
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.
This post begins a short series on balloon weapons.
Another year already? Happy 2017 everyone!
A look back at 2016 in balloons…
Closing out 2016 with this balloon…
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:
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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! 
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.
What happens when you squeeze balloon corn? It becomes popcorn…hahaha
I was stopping by a brunch at a friend’s place and thought I’d bring cupcakes. I love balloon food. 🙂
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 ]
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.
