Giraffe Column

My first attempt at making a column with no base plate and stick support. Made do with a box of gravels and a dowel standing on the lid held down with hot glue and tape.

My first time having a balloon within a balloon and learnt something new!
1. The inner balloon actually acts as a stopper and the outer balloon will not deflate if I left the balloon sitting at the neck.
2. I have mastered the art of tying an inflated balloon with only one hand!

Halfway there...

Took me a good 2.5 hrs to do it. Asked my daughter what she'd like to have for her birthday and she said a giraffe. I wanted to make her something big and decided on this. I'm sure it'll take less time if I had better experience, but nobody starts off with experience anyway and I'm very happy with the final result.

It stood at our front door and everyone who came through had a wow! for it! Secretly pleased and excited to hear compliments. If you would like to add any suggestions to improve on it, do feel free to do so.

In the meantime, till the next column comes up, I'll be in search for base plates and stick attachments.

 Nearly there.. Just need a few finishing touches and to cover up the open spaces.

Final product at night.

Final product during the day.

Birthday celebration

I decided long ago that my children are not going to have lollies in their party bags and so here it is, 30 party bags filled with a balloon dog each, for my daughter's birthday giveaway at childcare tomorrow. Dog instructions from here.

Headband and huge flower!

Spent about 2 hours last night doing up these gifts for two special people today. It wouldn't have cost me so much time if I had the sense to plan ahead what I wanted. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful 2 hours of exploring and learning and coming up with such cute and beautiful pieces! The designs were from various balloon artists and other than photos from Balloony Glen and Sylvia Ang on Facebook, I can't remember where else I see this flower.

The headband was for a birthday girl who will turn 5 in two days. Brought it to church with us to give it to her and her younger brother was more fascinated by it! LOL!

The huge flower was for a Christmas party. Not exactly for the party, but the one who hired my to twist balloons. I make it a point to make something special for the person who pays me and this time decided on this. It's quite a popular flower design in Singapore. Mainly used with yellow 260Qs for the petals and black for the middle or a huge round for the middle.

I was nearly out of yellow and decided on orange. My daughter gladly modelled them for me. :)

Bride and Groom

Made this bride and groom for sunday school today. It was for the wedding at Canan where Jesus turned water into wine. We all took turns walking the bride and groom. It is my first attempt at making a bride and groom without instructions. Might use 160Q for the arms in the future.

I also taught the children how to make a balloon flower each to throw as the bride and groom passes by. We all had fun learning how to make the flower and a good experience for me too, to make the instructions clear and easy to follow.

Caterpillar

Had nothing to do, so I decided to work on my loop twist technique.

The tutorial for the caterpillar used 3 balloons. I just kept going with the colours and ended up with 5 balloons for the loops, 1 for the body and 1 for the eyes.

Check it out and give it a try! http://youtu.be/9AK1kXXs6Jo

A car, a hippo and a pirate hat

Remember the balloon twisting assignment I mentioned in a previous post? Some of the children I know didn't get to have a balloon because of time constraint and I promised to give it to them the next time I see them.

So, here they are, a little red car, a hippo and a pirate's hat. I did another fish and a giraffe too, but forgot to take a photo of them.

Instructions :
Hippo : http://youtu.be/aznLd-0aOZM
Pirate's Hat : http://youtu.be/hkPOH0opSfE

Engagement Centrepiece

Was asked to do a couple of birds for an engagement party for a church friend. The first image that came to mind was that of two swans in water.

Went on youtube to find swan tutorials. Not the basic swan, but something more complex. Finally found one from Andre Nolle and something from a website BalloonArtWorld.com

I had every intention to made a diamond weave for the water, but it just didn't turn out. The weave wouldn't lie flat. Ended up using a blue cloth as the water instead.

The swans were fairly easy to make. With practice. Took me a couple of hours to get them right. The balloons kept bursting in the room, either from over twisting, or heat. Even though I'm in an air-con room. Grr.. The beak was the most difficult part, getting it at the right proportions. But, overall, a really nice sculpture.

So here it is, I hope the couple likes them!

Balloon twisting with children

Did my first balloon twisting assignment at a local playgroup today and I was overwhelmed by the positive remarks from parents and children. I was really nervous as this is my first line twisting. There were other entertainers at the playgroup for their Christmas party and that was very very helpful for me as a first timer.

I totally enjoyed the time twisting for the children. They really have A LOT of patience! They'd sit and watch and wait for their turn. Had some balloons pre-made and that helped a lot for those who were not sure what they wanted.

But my fingers are sore now!

Look forward to the next twisting opportunity!

Christmas Trees

Had my first balloon twisting assignment at a local playgroup and thought I'll make a Christmas tree for the organiser. I made the one on the left first then my husband asked for one to decorate his table at work, so I made the one with the red heart on top.

Supposed to only take less than 30 mins for each one, but because I had trouble visioning it in 3D, they took me a couple of hours to complete. Very pleased with them, though each can still be improved.

Rooster

Made this rooster when my girls were playing in the front yard. Just wanted to do something with my fingers other than chalk drawing...

Angry Bird

Had a birthday delivery today for a 5 y.o. boy. Used the tutorial from Cody Williams. Check it out here.

Hello Kitty

There's been so hello kitty posts on facebook in general the last few weeks that I thought I'll join the buzz and make a Hello Kitty too! Hope you like it!

Angel

Alright, I know we don't see blue angels very often, but this didn't start off as an angel. My 4 y.o. wanted to make a person with the pink round balloon and blue heart balloon tied together. I told her it would be very wobbly.

Saw some angel pictures on search engines and decided to give it a go. Next time, I'll add the arms. But I thought it looked kinda cute like that too. At least when shown to people, they could tell me that it's an angel and not have to double guess! And I love blue. :)

Baby Rattle

Found this cute video tutorial on youtube for a baby rattle. See video here. Done by warrenann. He used two 5" clear round balloons and gumballs, but I only had a 11" clear round balloon and made my own balloon balls to stuff in.

So, here's the end result and I hope my 15 month old will enjoy it as much as I do! :)

Ray Gun

My 4y.o. daughter is into fighting monsters these days and she told me that I am to kill them all. She gave me a miserable block of building block to use as a gun and I told her that it is certainly not big enough to kill all the monsters.

Remembering a photo of a balloon ray gun somewhere, I made one from memory. If you know who the creator is, please message me and I'll credit him/her accordingly. I can't find the picture anywhere and will keep looking.

So, here it is, our ray gun for fighting monsters and daddy too.

Duck with 5" heart

Bought some 5" hearts in my last balloon purchase a and gave this duck a try. Was too lazy to get a 160Q out of the bag, so a 260Q substituted it. It would look better with the 160Q. Sigh.. It doesn't pay to be lazy!

Instructions from Ralph Dewey here.

Penguin

Made this penguin with instructions from Holly's penguin tutorial on youtube. It's really quick and cute. I changed a few minor things. Thinks the feet look cuter in Holly's tutorial. But I like the cheeks and beak. :)

Gave it to a friend's daughter who came to drop off a bag of toys.

Big Bear Head - Rabbit

Was looking at Shonna Flanigan's Big Bear Head designs on Facebook and wanted to try them.

The main problem was getting the balloon heads to blow up properly. I could get the air into one ear but not the other and had to squeeze and pump to even out the air. But did a quick search online and trusty youtube directed me to a video of how Shonna blows hers up. Really have to start right up from the ears.

Only had time to experiment with one design today, so here it is, a rabbit :

The wonderful thing about this balloon is that it works both ways with the ears on top or bottom. I like my rabbit with the 260Q as the ears (top photo), but my eldest prefers to have it the other way round (bottom photo).

Once I got the hang of blowing it up, it really is a very quick and easy means of making characters. Wonderful for line work or at busy times. But it is quite an expensive balloon compared to the 260s.

Edit : This photo below is what my daughter and I could agree upon this morning and I added in the features. Hope you like it!

Ballerina

Did a search on ballerina and saw a few lovely images of them. Decided to try my hand at one and this was the result. Took me awhile to work out the legs, but i quite like my first attempt. Can be better. Next time. :)

Butterfly after a meal

This was done last Wednesday, after lunch at one of my favourite restaurant across my church. Made this for the owner after we were finished. We were the only ones dining there and my daughter wanted to have a photo with the butterfly before handing it over! Somehow I forgot to bring back her water bottle and when we went for lunch there yesterday, the owner said that he had kept our bottle and even washed it! Glad to have such nice people around!

Pink Ribbon Day

 Did this ribbon for Pink Ribbon Day today. The ribbon and flowers were easy to make, it's putting them together that took the longest..

Check out Pink Ribbon Day on how you can help Cancer Council to raise awareness about breast and gynaecological cancers and supporting Australian women and families who are affected by these cancers.

Strawberries

Saw this cute strawberry from I'mNotaClown.com and wanted to give it a try. It uses the raisin twist that I had meant to try out for awhile and this gave me an excuse to work on my balloons and new combinations.

These ones were made by me :

Top: 5" heart for the strawberry
Middle : 5" round for the strawberry
Bottom : Added a heart for the body.. Looks like a scary strawberry with the awful face art. Really need to work on my drawing...

Giraffe

Went through images online and on youtube to find another giraffe design and really liked this cute one that all twisters use, with slight variations.

The basic giraffe does well with artwork, but it's just a 1-balloon long-necked dog.

This other cute giraffe uses 4 balloons and depending on the number of people waiting for balloons, I can add or omit the mane at the neck.

I hope you like this as much as I do!

Instructions for cute giraffe is here.

Handbag/Purse

First attempt at making a handbag inspired from Ralph Dewey's contribution at Balloon HQ. Did it this morning at church while the husband has worship practice.

There's plenty of room for improvement, but I thought it wasn't too bad for a first time try! 

Creation song

Once when I was leading Sunday School Worship, I taught the children the Creation Song by Colin Buchanan. I gave them the incentive of a balloon sculpture if they can memorise the whole song and answer questions related to it. These were some of the balloons that I used.

Made a few different animals for the creatures that God made for the land, sea and air.

            

    

Balloons learnt from these sources :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiSmHmzIDCA&feature=related

http://www.balloonhq.com/column/dewey/jul03/

http://youtu.be/xG1GA0Kn2Wc

http://www.youtube.com