My favorite balloons to twist
Posts tagged 160
Baby pacifier
May 29th
It definitely feels like baby shower season! I made these pacifier balloons and hung them up as decorations for a baby shower.
Pacifiers
To make this pacifier, you’ll need one 5″ round balloon and one 160 balloon.
- Inflate the 160 balloon until there is a little bit less than 1″ uninflated.
- Make one loop for the handle.
- Push the air to fill up any remaining uninflated part of the balloon.
- Make 3 loops for the mouth shield part of the pacifier, leaving a small bubble at the end. You can make the three loops with one twist by first folding the balloon so it has 3 loops (like a sine wave with 1.5 cycles – see picture… actually it’s more like 1.55) and twisting it in the middle (along the x-axis.)
- Hide the remaining small bubble in the handle.
- Then inflate the round balloon, tie it, and wrap the end around the 160 balloon to attach it.
Monkey
Apr 4th
Monkey
This is a monkey made for another special birthday girl. I had an interesting time making this balloon – I was down to my last three 260 brown balloons, I needed all three, and one of the arms popped!
I tied up the balloon that popped so that it wouldn’t lose any more air. I unraveled the other (still intact) arm and used it to form the back of the monkey and the tail. I had plenty of 160 browns, so I used one of those to form the arms. The end result turned out better than the original design I had planned!
You’ll need five balloons – three brown 260s, one blush 260, and one brown 160. Use one brown and part of one blush 260s for the head. You’ll use one brown 260 for one leg and the tail, one brown 260 for the other leg and the body, one 160 for the arm, and the remaining part of the blush 260 for the body. The body and the head are made separately. To attach the two, simply stuff the neck into the head. The hands and feet are just simple loop twists. Push the small bubble formed on the ends of the arms through the loop to secure them, and then position them so they look like thumbs.
Birthday cake and princess (Snow White)
Mar 26th
Birthday cake and princess
Happy birthday G! I made a princess that somewhat resembles Snow White (G’s favorite princess). And what’s a birthday without birthday cake?
Princess (side)
Princess: To make the princess, I used this video to help me get started. For the head, I used a black 260 for the hair and a blush 350 for the head. For the body, I improvised and made a slightly more detailed dress. I used a blush 160 for the arms, a 260 shiny blue for the top of dress, and 350 and 160 yellows for the bottom of the dress. If you only have 260 balloons, that is fine. I just like to use different sizes so everything is more in proportion. You may not be able to tell from the picture above, but both the bottom and top of the dress (and the hair) use a bird body (or three-bubble roll through.) I used a red 260 scrap to make a small hair bow, and a white paint pen and different colored markers to draw in the facial features.
Birthday cake: For the birthday cake, I followed this video to make the base of the cake. I made my cake 5-sided instead of 6-sided. After making the base, I “decorated” the cake using 160 pink balloons. The candle is a pretty neat twist. The candle is basically made by using a tulip twist, which can be a little difficult the first time (it might pop when you take your finger out of the balloon.) You can wear this birthday cake as a hat too!
[ Video link: Princess balloon ]
[ Video link: Birthday cake ]
Helicopter
Nov 11th
Helicopter
Helicopter
Little kids (especially boys) seem to love trains, trucks, and other vehicles. So, when I came across instructions for this helicopter balloon, I was eager to try it out. This balloon takes two balloons – preferably one 160 (for the rotors) and one 260 (for the helicopter body.) If you only have 260s, two 260s will work just fine.
See the directions from Professor Wonder here.
Helicopter
My comments on the instructions: You will use up the entire balloon for the helicopter body. I found that I quickly ran out of “balloon” and I had to make a lot of the bubbles smaller than what the instructions called for. (For example, the 6 inch bubbles were more like 3.5-4 inch bubbles for me.)
When making the rotors, I inflated the balloon till there was 1-1.5 inches left, not the 3 indicated in the instructions. I wanted to use up as much as I could of the balloon for the rotors.
To take the pictures, I attached a piece of string to the rotors and hung up the helicopter. A helicopter belongs in the air anyway. 🙂 For a kid’s birthday party, if it fit your theme, I imagine you could hang the helicopters (and perhaps some airplanes?) around the room as decorations for a nice touch.
Birds
Sep 6th
Birds
Yesterday was my last SS class with the 4-5 year olds – they’ll be moving on to the Kindergarten class next week! They have grown so much! I made the birds above as a little gift.
Last Day of SS
We didn’t have a formal lesson, so I made up some different activities. After a review game, I talked about God’s creation and showed some pictures I had taken recently of some plants and insects, as well as pictures of my family (they happened to be in the same pile and the kids were interested,) and ended with a picture of the class.
Afterward, I brought out the balloons and made a couple simple animals, which the kids enjoyed. (Some of the kids started repeating “I want a ….” so I put the balloons away. My funny assistant replied “I want a hamburger” making the kids laugh.) I asked if they thought these animals I just made were special, and they said yes, as expected. Then, I reminded them that God created each of them and they were all super special!
Bluebirds and duck
Making the birds
You’ll need one 160 and one 260. I followed the directions by Twistina. (Really nice instructions and photos!) It took longer than I expected. Adding detail, such as the legs and beak, adds more time, but they sure do look really nice and colorful. It ended up taking me about 15 minutes a bird after I got the hang of it (and some popped balloons.) I was excited to use my 160s for the first time.
I simplified the design of some of the birds: I didn’t add the pinch twist at the tail for some. Also, if I had just the right amount of air left after forming the head, I didn’t break off the last bit of the balloon. I would hide that last air bubble inside the body, or make it into a little chin under the beak, which also looks pretty cool.
Birds packed up for transport
To make the eyes: I drew eyes with regular markers on the leftover white part of a sticker sheet and then cut them out. I added a little color to some of the eyes (although you probably can’t see it in the picture.) You can draw the eyes directly onto the balloon with a Sharpie, but I liked the look of having the white part of the eyes. You can also add eyebrows or eyelashes.
I made all the birds the day before, as I knew I wouldn’t have time to make them all during class (about 12-15 kids).
The birdies here are all packed up and ready to go, and they each survived the trip just fine.
