My favorite balloons to twist
2016 in review
Jan 2nd
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
Princess Leia
Dec 31st
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.
[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!
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.
Penguin wearing a Santa hat
Dec 27th
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.
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.
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! 
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 ]
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.
Birthday bouquet
Apr 7th
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.
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 ]
Birthday hat
Mar 26th
Balloon hat
This balloon hat was made for a special birthday boy, my super-energetic nephew. (Can’t believe you’re growing up so quickly!)
This hat has the same base as the five-sided birthday cake and this other hat. You can choose different colors and arrange the ends in various ways to create many unique and fun hats. It takes me about 15 minutes now.
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 bouquet
Feb 17th
Flower Bouquet
This flower bouquet was made for my friend’s baby shower. Congratulations Katie on your coming bundle of joy! 🙂
You can make a vase out of balloons, but I often like using a real glass vase. It looks nice and it is sturdy. For the stems, I like to use the wintergreen 160 balloons, which are part of the Qualatex 160 Vibrant Assortment. Of course, any green will work. Many of these flowers I’ve made before, but I did look up a tutorial for the rose. There are many rose videos out there – I used this video by Yonaimy. Lastly, you get to use your flower arranging skills. 🙂
[ Video tutorial by Yonaimy ]
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!
Baby bootees
Feb 12th
Baby bootees
These baby bootees were hung as a wall decoration for a baby shower.
To make these balloons, I followed Vyacheslav’s video tutorial. (The video is in Russian, but can easily be followed. Check out his other tutorials!) I didn’t have pink small rounds and used two pink large rounds instead. This balloon requires a pretty neat advanced technique to get the shape of the shoes – you’ll inflate a 160 or 260 balloon segment inside of a round balloon and then deflate the round balloon a bit. Very cute!
[ Video tutorial by Vyacheslav]
Year of the monkey
Feb 8th
Happy (Lunar) New Year!
Monkey holding flowers
2016 is the year of the monkey according to the Chinese zodiac. I twisted the above monkey for a baby shower this past weekend (more photos to come!)
This was the first time I used a geo blossom balloon as a base. I’ve read how other balloon artists have partially filled the geo blossom with water or other weights to keep the balloon upright. I didn’t fill the balloon with anything but air, and used Scotch tape on the bottom of the geo blossom, which worked well for me.
