Just sharing a few....

JBax wrote: "I don't twist... can't stand the sound of twisting balloons, but..."

That is so funny and true for quite a few people....

I don't mind the sound when I am twisting --- but it can be tough on some of the instructional videos - I am always turning the sound down...... "nails on the blackboard" might only be a peg up on the most annoying sounds in the world list!!

The hubby gets fed up on the long road trips after 49 "squeak a squeakas" and a few pops!!! and gives me that "give it a rest" look like I am a naughty 6 year old:

yes, I try to keep it to about 2 or 3 minutes per child, less if the line is really long... I had an event in November where the kids were waiting in line 45 minutes for a balloon!

Thanks for the dvd suggestion Metina! I only have 2 or 3 that a wonderful friend let me borrow! and another I found on clearance..... and I have a Ralph Dewey and a few other books. I like the books so I can pore over the design and my favorite DVD was Ed Chee's! He is amazing!! Flower on youtube has some good tutorials and Michael Floyd on balloon-animals.com is very creative!!! I like Don Caldwell too - a true performer. And Thelma Lovett is very very clever and quite original in her designs.

I don't feel I am "fast" enough for crowds or line work yet unless you just want a bunch of dogs, swords, flowers, rabbits, wands, horses, fishing poles and fish, ladybug or turtle bracelets and parrots on a swing!

I twist! I enjoy it on a relaxing level and it allows me to participate in an activity that my boyfriend loves to do. I learned balloons from Ryan(my bf) who just happens to be an AMAZING balloon guy.

I've been doing them for a couple of years now, and I do them once a week at a restaurant. I started out with a few one balloon things, but then I very quickly moved on to 3 and 4 balloon stuff.

I started out with simple things like these:

A wand-


A penguin-


Now I can do bigger things like these(which were just made for fun one day, not an actual event!)

A hat-


An Angler Fish... I tried to make him look mean-


I wish that I had a pic of the turkey that I made when I met Metina! He was pretty cute

OMG what fun - I haven't tried yet but an planning to...Metina you got my ball rolling.

Ashley- AWESOME ANGLER FISH.... I see you have crossed over to try your own modifications and designs. I want to reach that point!! Love the eyes on the penguin and angler!!!

Here is my dragonfly....(inspired by a balloon forum design)



and a Flamingo Hat....(from Ed Chee's hat dvd)

Wyndy, the dragonfly and flamingo are soooooo cute! I'll have to attach my hard drive and post a few pics. I use some designs from a very nice lady in England called Thelma Levett. I did a great killer whale from an internet video and was pleased to be able to adapt it into a shark. I'm on a UK based balloon forum and they have a model of the month competition, which is great fun. They post instructions at the end of the month so you can see where you went wrong if necessary.

WyndyO wrote:JBax wrote: "I don't twist... can't stand the sound of twisting balloons, but..."

That is so funny and true for quite a few people....

I don't mind the sound when I am twisting --- but it can be tough on some of the instructional videos - I am always turning the sound down...... "nails on the blackboard" might only be a peg up on the most annoying sounds in the world list!!

The hubby gets fed up on the long road trips after 49 "squeak a squeakas" and a few pops!!! and gives me that "give it a rest" look like I am a naughty 6 year old:

oooh yea. And the popping is worse... the pressure from my spinal fluid in my head pushes out on my eardrums... so the popping really hurts my ears! Balloons are now banned from my house. That was a sad, sad day.

Those are all so cool! I don't twist and after a hundred pops and broken balloons in one night my husband gave up too lol

So now we have alot of left over balloons just collecting dust.. Ashley- is it possible to explain how to do that twisty wand?? I hope its simple like you said I'd like to maybe make some of those to just tie on our canopy at gigs.

If you mean the one in Ash's pics

Just blow up 3 260's (full but still soft- achieved by burping -or releasing a light puff blast of air out of the nozzle/mouth end- before tying the knot) of different colors twist a soft 1 inch bubble (twist at least 3 times - some people prefer 5 times) - take the 3 diff 1 inch bubbles and twist together (you could twist one bubble under another a couple of times to secure it better. ) Then begin "spiraling" - you have to kind of hold them a bit as you crawl your hands up turning them. Then twist another one inch softish bubble at the end of each different colored balloon. Inflate a heart balloon and tie or twist -(better if you take the nozzle and wind it around the bubble joint a few times.

It might be easier to do with 2 balloons first if 3 go all wild and are hard to hold on. Also some people do a very respectable heart wand by just inflating a single 260 (keep it soft with a 2 to 4 inch uninflated tail end) balloon and know before tying an inflated heart balloon on the nozzle/mouth end - then just do some flower petals (or loops) at the nozzle side end of the 260 under the heart at least 3,4, or 5 until the heart pulls in tighter and it looks good. I will try and do one quick to show you a pic.

Here's one of my favorite balloons that I've created so far:



it's an I You balloon! one of my few originals!

Debi's Doodles wrote:Those are all so cool! I don't twist and after a hundred pops and broken balloons in one night my husband gave up too lol

So now we have alot of left over balloons just collecting dust.. Ashley- is it possible to explain how to do that twisty wand?? I hope its simple like you said I'd like to maybe make some of those to just tie on our canopy at gigs.

Yea, the twist is easy. Just inflate two 260's. Not all of the way though.. leave like 1" at the end uninflated, or just burp them so that they are nice and soft.

Now take your two balloons, twist the ends together so that you have like... one really long balloon.

Then, hold them up with two hand against each other and twirl them around each other.

Twist their ends together when you get to the end.

ALL DONE!

ALSO, watch this video... because the AMAZING Don Caldwell explains it so much better than I can!

thanks wyndy and ashley! That video really helps too...I think I can handle the twisty wand


That beer mug is awesome lol