The most wonderful thing about Tiggers

...is NOT that they are hard to make out of balloons.

But Tiggers are a way of life in our family, and our house seems to be full of them. So obviously I wanted to make Rebecca a good Tigger balloon. I thought it was shocking that there are nearly no tutorials out there (isn't eveyone obsessed with Tiggers? I had no idea.)

A few months ago, I followed a very complicated and silent video of an Asian twister making a Tigger balloon. It turned out OK, but had no repeatability factor at all. Whenever my daughter has asked me to make another one, I have apologized and said no.

But then I "discovered" a new balloon twister who makes tutorials. Her daughter must be just like mine, because she makes Frozen tutorials and peacock facepainting. Both of those go over very well around here.

I thought it couldn't hurt to ask, so I went to her Facebook page and sent her a message, requesting a Tigger tutorial, and boy did she deliver!

It's a fast and easy Tigger that is simple enough to whip off in a few minutes, which is a huge advantage.

As you can see for yourself, Rebecca loves it, and he fits right in.

Materials: 4 Qualatex 260s (3x orange, 1x blush), 1 Qualatex 160 (orange) for the twisty tail
Level of difficulty: Lower intermediate. The twisty balloon is tricky, but the rest is very doable.
Source: Little Miss Twist's Tigger (Did you hear my shout-out?!?!? So honored!)

Run for your lives!

I felt like trying out some new designs this afternoon, and thought Holly's t-rex was adorable, so I gave it a try. It was relatively easy and still impressive. I really like him, and can imagine he is cute in other colors, too. (Holly suggested making hot pink and purple ones for girls, but I am a feminist mommy and will keep handing out the green ones to everyone)

No free beer TODAY makes everyone angry

Materials: 3 Qualatex 260s (2x lime green, 1x green), 1 Qualatex 160 (white), 1 Qualatex 5" round in red
Level of difficulty: Lower intermediate (If I can do it, you can do it.)
Source: Holly's T Rex

She likes the fierce balloons

What good is "talent" if you aren't embarrassing anyone?

My husband turned 40 the other day. Can you tell?

He's a good sport.

He dutifully took his hat to work, but I am guessing it stayed in the car, and I don't think he even marched around swinging his scepter. He is no fun sometimes


Materials:
Crown: 2 Qualatex 350s (sadly I had to substitute blue for white, blah! and red) and 3 Qualatex 260s (I went for yellow instead of gold since metallics are harder to work with)
Scepter: 2 Qualatex 260s (yellow) and 1 Qualatex 5" red round
Difficulty: Relatively easy
Source: Holly Hopper's king accessories

You might notice I am not wearing a silly hat.

Considering he had just shown up a few weeks earlier in this little duck number for Karneval, I don't blame him. We don't want them to think he has lost the plot.

A REALLY good sport.

Just for Till...

My friend Serge's son Till is a real dragon and a true fighter. So when Till wasn't doing so well, I was more than happy to try to make some dragons to cheer him and his parents up, even just a little.

The results, however, were mixed.

I have seen that face somewhere before.

Materials: 1 Qualatex 260 (lime) and 1 Qualatex 160 (light blue here, I bet this would be cute in clear, but not great on pictures)
Difficulty: Easy
Source: Michael Floyd's 2-balloon dragon

I love Michael Floyd, I really do. But sometimes I find his balloons too simple, almost like he is losing cuteness for the sake of simplicity. They are often also deceptively simple looking, and harder to twist than they appear. This wasn't a case of that, but considering I had learned Michael's alligator already, I quickly realized that this is basically an alligator with wings. But it gets the job done, and I appreciate Michael for being the first balloon source I had. He is approachable and one of the first stops for new twisters.

She sure is selling this one.

Materials: 3 Qualatex 260s (2 lime green, 1 yellow), yellow scrap for the eyes, Qualatex 160 for the tongue
Difficulty: Wowza. (for me, so probably lower intermediate)
Source: Amazing Balloon Guy

Thank goodness for my assistant, Rebecca. In this case, she is actually holding the back of this balloon together in the rear. I am not accepting all the blame though, I was following  a tutorial where the guy said, "Well, I made a mistake. So the dragon will only have one leg in the back." WHAT???!!?? So I untwisted some of the body to make it work out, leaving this dragon with an AMAZING face and a mess of a retwisted body. Ugh.

My husband Christoph decided to let the dragons fight it out. Can you tell we have too many balloon animals laying around here?

Boys will be boys.

Ready for Rio!

Each Tuesday, Holly Hopper posts a tutorial on YouTube. I think they are the best balloon animal lessons out there, and most of them are easy to follow yet turn out beautifully. My balloons are never perfect (a wonky eye here, a missing wing there) but they are usually at least presentable. Holly's balloons are real crowd pleasers.

This week, she showed a "generic blue parrot" which of course was preparation for Rio 2's release. "Real" twisters have to react to what kids want, so I am sure this one is going to be popular this spring.

It actually turned out! Except my bird is doing a split, rather than having gracefully curved legs. So I called my trusty assistant Rebecca and told her to gently tug at the legs while I took a picture.

Taaaa-Daaaa, my first Blu! Rebecca was proud that she colored on the eyes and eyebrows.

Nonchalant in pulling down those bird legs. That's my girl! 

She's getting mighty creative with these boring pictures.

Materials: 4x Qualatex 260s but you could get away with 3 if you are any good at using scraps (2x pale blue, 2x black)

Level of difficulty: I'm guessing pretty easy, or I couldn't do it.

Source: The lovely Holly Hopper

Mom first, balloon twister second?

I have always proudly announced that I am a "Mom first, translator second". I am a freelance technical translator who deals with a lot of high-stress last-minute projects. In my line of work, I spend a lot of time dealing with catalogs, websites, and texts about light switches and screwdrivers. It's a dry way to spend the day, but it's worth it since it means I can pick our daughter up from school everyday and spend that extra time with her in the afternoon before returning to my desk when she is in bed.

It's a terribly stressful time at work at the moment, so I rely on planning ahead and then flying by the seat of my pants anyway. Today is Rebecca's school Karneval party, so I had her costume ironed and waiting on a perfect little hanger, complete with boots and cape. The perfect "pony tail" wrap the exact right color was on the table next to the brush. Everything was in order.

Or so I thought.

Last night, Rebecca let me know that all the kids in her class had to bring a little sandwich box full of treats along to share with the other kids. And then she proudly announced, "Don't worry, Mommy, I told Frau Durau we don't have sweets in the house so you would make balloon animals for everyone instead." Seriously?!?

So rather than throwing some gummy bears in a box, I was supposed to make animals for 27 kids? Yikes. Did I mention the ever-growing pile of work on my desk?

Negotiations with Rebecca began but didn't go as well as hoped. We agreed on my making the 9 "class mascots" of the school rather than 27 individual balloons.
That's better, right?

Wrong.

I didn't ask WHICH animals I would need to make. So instead of making 27 little 2-balloon bears, I had somehow agreed to make one bear, penguin, giraffe, frog, elephant, seal, turtle, raven, and hedgehog. HEDGEHOG??? Luckily, I knew how to make about half of them (bear, penguin, giraffe, frog, turtle). I was able to find a tutorial for an elephant, I figured a raven is just a black duck with less of a bill and a different tail, and I invented a seal which worked for me (more or less). But that hedgehog just wouldn't happen. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. So they got a fun two-balloon dog instead. 

The seal I "invented" on the fly for Rebecca's class. Its 1 white 260, 1 white 5" round, and 1 red 5" round glued to the nose (which felt very much like cheating)

I pulled it off, but barely. My fingers were raw and my translations were undone, but my girl ran into her classroom with both arms full of balloons today and was as happy as can be.

So now I am suddenly a "Mom first, very amateur balloon twister second, and translator far back in third", and I think that is just fine with me.

It's Daffy Duck with a tail of balloon scraps tied to his behind, making him a raven.

My crowning achievement

A friend is having a "hat party" this weekend and needs some balloon hats for guests who show up without their own hats. This is my first attempt, a princess crown, modelled by my own princess, my 8-year-old daughter Rebecca.

Pinch twists left, right, and center. Without a single pop!

Materials: 3x Qualatex 260s (shown here in pink, spring lilac and violet purple)
Level of difficulty: Easy
Source: Unicaw's princess crown
(Warning: This guy has the energy of a hamster on speed)


Some balloon creations are easier than they look. This is one of them. The biggest issue is getting those lilac twists the same size and handling the whole thing with my own two hands. (I don't think I could manage this one standing up)

This crown would also easily fit an adult. One thing I haven't figured out is how to handle the fact that balloons are full of static and hair can get tangled in all those twists. I guess you have to suffer for beauty sometimes.

You know you're winning when your crown is bigger than your head.

And because my girl is a firm believer that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, we added a 5-6" red heart balloon to the top of the crown. She was a big fan of this new version.