Welcome to BMTV! This week Sue Bowler returns to show us how to make a few simple decorations and to give an insight into how she gets her inspiration. She says that she draws inspiration from looking at the design on a balloon and thinking of how she can create centerpieces to match. For instance, the Toadstool and Caterpillar on this woodland balloon stood out for Sue so these are the design we are going to learn how to make today! Sue is also going to show some distortion techniques with the Toadstool so stay tuned for that! Let’s get started.

Caterpillar design using apple twists!

This is one of Sue’s classic designs and she says that whenever she makes it, it’s like an old friend coming back to her!

To make this design, Sue is going to use multiple apple twists for the body. To make an apple tiwst you first need a 5-inch balloon, inflate it to stretch the balloon out and then release some air to downsize. This is important as this makes the balloon softer and reduces the risks of bursts when working with it. For more information on downsizing, see our balloon basics video here.

You need to knot the balloon close to the lip end of the balloon so you still have a lot of neck to work with. Sue is going to make two connection points on the balloon so she cuts a 260Q in half and makes a synch knot out of one half. She attaches the synch knot to the neck of the balloon, again at the end of the neck.

Now, take your thumb and your finger and push the knot all the way through the balloon and grab it on the other side. Twist the knot around three times and take your other piece of 260Q and wrap it around the knot 3 or 4 times. The tension of the balloon will hold it all together and you have your first apple twist!

Make a few of these apple twist balloon cells and connect them together by wrapping the 260Qs together and tying. Connect as many cells as you think you need (Sue used 7). Inflate and tie in a tail to one end using a scrap end of a 260Q. Next, we need to add a head so inflate another 5-inch balloon and tie it onto the other end! We are going to add some features to the head in a second, but for now we are going to weight the design down using water-weights. These are double-stuffed 5-inch balloons filled with water, leave long necks for tying together. Tie them and slot them in the middle of the design.

To add features to the face, you can either draw a face on using Edding or Sharpie pens or (if you’re not going to chance you drawing skills!) then you can stick googly eyes onto it using balloon bond. Sue also inflates a nose using a tiny bit of a 160Q balloon and again sticking it onto the head using balloon bond.

Toadstool using distortion.

This is a creative design that Sue has developed using multiple balloons-inside-balloons to create the unique shape of a Toadstool. Veteran BMTV viewers might remember this featured on the Qualatex stand from last year’s spring fair show! Anyway, let’s get started.

The first thing that Sue does is to create a tulip twist in a 646Q Mocha Brown balloon. Like the apple twist; Sue inflates the balloon bigger than she needs and reduces it down in size to stretch it out. Knot it at the very end of the neck, again to allow a tying point. Sue again creates a synch knot using a 260Q and adds it to the neck of the balloon. Push the knot of the 646 all the way through and twist it 2 or 3 times and use another piece of 260Q to knot it off. This gives you your base for the mushroom, now onto the exciting bit!

Sue takes a Red Polka Dot 11-inch balloon and places a 260Q inside by folding it in half and inserting it into the neck. Make sure you have the two ends of the 260Q protruding from the neck of the 11-inch balloon. Keep hold of the 260 tightly and inflate the 11-inch balloon to half-size.

Next you need to inflate the 260Q. Sue likes to use a pocket pump at this stage as she finds it easier to hold everything while inflating at the same time. As you inflate the 260Q, it will create a circle around the inside of the balloon. Pull out both uninflated necks of the 260Q, let a little bit of air out and tie them together. Trim the excess off the 260Q.

This is the tricky part, the 260Q needs to be rotated 90 degrees inside the 11-inch. With the 11-inch still partially inflated, push down on the 260 inside and roll it over. This may take a few experiments but you should be able to reposition the knot to the middle of the 11-inch. You can now let the air out of the 11-inch.

The next part of the distortion is to insert another 11-inch balloon into the polka dot balloon (it helps if it is a similar colour). Inflate the inner 11-inch and it should sit between outer 11-inch and the 260Q, you can now knot the inside 11-inch balloon.

Next, push the 260Q down so it sits closer to the knot. You don’t need to tie the neck of the polka dot balloon but instead use the neck to tie the head to the base by twisting the latex around each other and tying.

This is the Toadstool finished! To get the design to stand up it needs to be weighted down. Sue’s preferred method for this is to use sand weights. Fill a few double stuffed 5-inch balloons with sand and tie them together. Sand weights are great for designs like this as they can be manipulated and flattened to fit any surface.

Create a bow from a piece of ribbon.

Have you always wanted to know how to make a bow from a piece of ribbon? We will show you how!

Pull it tight and remove from your fingers!

How else you can use these techniques?

You may not be making Caterpillars or Toadstools every day but you can use these techniques for other, every-day designs. As demonstrated by Sue’s “Bugs in a Bag”. These are made using smaller 5-inch balloons so they fit in a matching bag. They also have matching 18-inch balloons and Sue stresses the importance of unifying the designs. Sue has also put a feather onto the head of the bugs to create wavy hair that really adds some movement to the design. She even adds a little bit of vinyl cut from a Cameo Silhouette to personalise the design.

Next is her “Love Bug” design for Valentine’s Day, featuring a moustache cut from vinyl and a little heart with a personalised message. Sue has added a trio of water weights for this design as it gives the character a little bit of bounce and creates a great amount of movement in the design. She got inspiration for this from the Mr Moustache foil balloon.

Want more of Sue’s designs? She actually has a couple of DVDs with training videos on different designs, everyday sculptures and tricks of the trade. You can find them on her website here. Also head over to look at Sues excellent blog that she does for Qualatex: The Very Best Balloon Blog.

Rob

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