Hello everyone. In this video I’m going to teach you how to make a dog balloon animal as well as I’m going to teach you variations on the dog balloon itself. So once you master the dog balloon, you’ll be able to create other creatures and expand your repertoire. So if you have your balloons in hand, let’s get started.
First, inflate your balloon be sure to leave some space that’s uninflated here at the end – about three inches. As you twist the balloon, it actually displaces air and gradually fills this up. You want to start at the nozzle end now watch what I do here. I’m going to pinch before I twist which makes it a lot easier. So pinching and twisting. It’s just a motion with a hand like this.
Now notice something here. If I let go of this hand, it pops out. So you have to hold it. So once again, pinch and twist and make what’s called a basic twist. Now watch my left hand here. I walk it over and then I hold it. And that’s part of the key of making this work. Now we’re going to make another basic twist using the same technique. And I’m going to hold, twist and now I’m going to fold these together.
We’re going to make what’s called a “lock twist.” Now it may seem kind of intuitive, but what you’re going to do is [Music] you’re going to squeeze here with the hand and then you’re going to twist this entire thing. Let’s do that. Don’t be shy, it is a little intimidating at first. But you’ve created the head of your dog balloon.
Now we’re going to make a neck. So we’re going to make a basic twist. Let’s say right about there. So once again, pinch and twist. Now the process is actually pretty similar from here on. You’re going to make the legs. So we’re going to make a basic twist of about, let’s just say about this long. Pinch, twist again. Fold. We’re going to be creating another lock twist here in one motion. So just grab and twist. Notice how I’m pinching here to help assist with the twist.
There you have the front of the dog. Make a basic twist for the body. Now we try and match the front legs with the back leg, so we’re going to make a basic twist right about here. Fold once again. We’re going to make the twist here. Watch my left fingers push in a little as I twist and we’re just going to twist here. There you have it, a basic dog balloon.
Now something I’m doing differently here is, I’m gonna use fold twists to make the legs, which is faster and you’ll see it works nicely. So I’m going to fold it like this. Notice that I didn’t make the basic twist as I did in the original dog. So fold, hold and now twist. It pretty much gives you the same structure as the original dog. Maybe it’s a little easier to make since it’s a little faster. You do save on that extra basic twist. And there you have a nice dog balloon.
Now here’s a variation on the tail. Now what I did was, I had a lot more uninflated end on this one and you’ll notice that it creates an uninflated end for the tail. Some people prefer this. Now the other fun thing you could do is something of a “poodle” tail. So let me show you how to do that. You’re going to pinch here and twist this segment in half and then push the air up to the end. And there you have a slightly different look for your dog balloon. In this segment, I’m going to teach you how to make a wiener dog or dachshund. So it’s very similar to making a regular dog, there are just a few differences. First of all, make your basic twist as you normally would.
Now you’re going to make a longer set of ears and you’ll see in a moment why. In fact, you can make these next basic two basic twists about the same length as the head. Lock twist. All right. Now at this point, you’ve made ahead of a dog as you normally would And these are these ears here. Now here’s the difference. You’re going to take the nose here and push it through this segment here. And you get a droopy dog look-see.
Now you make a short neck – short legs just as you would in the, you’re just doing what you do with a regular dog. You’re going to make very short legs, a long body, and two more rear legs to match the front. And there you have it, a wiener or dachshund dog. Perhaps the most popular variation on a dog balloon animal is the giraffe.
Once again, it’s all the same twists. It’s all about proportions. And as you would expect, it’s going to be a very long neck. Start with your nozzle end and inflate it just as you would for a dog balloon. Now we’re going to make a rather short head or first basic twist here. Maybe two inches. The next two twists basic twists that you would make for ears are going to be very small – about an inch. Fold as you normally would and now twist for your lock twist. The head of a giraffe. Now, of course, the next basic twist will form the neck and it’s a long neck. So you can make it as long as you like.
I’m going over afoot here. Now we’re going to make front legs and giraffes have long legs so we’re going to be very generous here, about eight inches. Now, something I like to do is make a small body, and then with the back legs make them slightly shorter than the legs here as a giraffe would. So you get kind of that angled body. So let me show you how to do that. Maybe about three inches for the body. Now for the legs. just a tad shorter here than the ones in the front.
And there you have a giraffe. If you’re at a party making these you can hand these out and kids will love them. They know that this is a giraffe. Of course, what really makes a giraffe is if you add the markings. So first of all, I’m using an erasable marker.
Somebody told me early on to use the erasable markers because they don’t tend to pop the balloons. I don’t know if that’s true. I have certainly used sharpie markers on there but I like the blunt tips as opposed to using something with a very fine point. So just keep in mind you can experiment but I’ve always used the erasable markers with a blunt tip that allows me to get a generous kind of marking on the balloon animal. I’m going to show you in this segment how to make a mouse. identical twists as when you make a dog, but it’s all about proportions.
So when you take your balloon, you’re only going to inflate it so far maybe about a foot, and leave plenty of uninflated. And it’s pretty much almost as small as you can make these. You’re going to make a basic twist of about an inch and a half and then you’re going to make the ears with two small half-inch basic twists. You’re going to have to hold and manually make this second basic twist. So there you have two small basic twists and then make the lock twist. You have the head of a mouse.
Once again, pretty much as small as you can make it. A half-inch basic twist now you’re going to make legs maybe an inch and a half. Make your lock twist. A tiny body, maybe an inch and finally you’re going to make your two remaining legs.And there you have a mouse balloon animal. I’m gonna teach you how to make the horse. You’re essentially making a dog but with horse-like proportions. So you can make a basic twist for a horse head, maybe about three inches. Now for this next segment of the horse, two basic twists. Make sure that they are very small ones.
Actually it’s around the basic twist. Fold, complete the lock twist. Now you’re going to make a neck. Maybe a little longer than that first one here. I’ll say right about there and of course, with the horse, the legs are slightly longer so instead of doing the dog-like leg we’re going to do slightly longer legs. [Music] And a body and legs that match. Blow up a second balloon. You won’t need it inflated very much. Take the nozzle, wrap it around the ears here.
Now you’re going to make three small basic twists [Music] and connect it at the base of the neck. Can you see the mane forming? And you’re going to match this with three more basic twists. You will have an extra balloon and you have to cut it off. So what you do is just kind of squeeze the balloon, take some scissors and you can just hold and then cut and then remove the excess. I’m going to use an advanced technique. I’m just going to control pop it. And there you have a horse with a mane. And of course, you can get fancy and turn this into a unicorn. And we do have another video that shows you a little bit more with the details how to add a mouth and such so that’s a horse.
A little bit about popping. First of all, check your fingernails and make sure there aren’t any burrs or sharp edges – these tend to catch on the balloons and cause them to pop. Second of all is the quality of your balloons. Now I happen to be using balloons that are high quality that is specifically designed for twisting and making various balloon animals. You can use your less expensive balloons you find at your dollar store and such. They will be thinner and have more of a tendency to pop.
Also, check the freshness of your balloons. If your balloons are old and brittle and have been out in the Sun, they’re going to tend to pop as you twist them. So fresh balloons are a must. When making balloon animals, I’m going to show you another technique that helps prevent popping. It’s called burping.
Now what you want to do is release a little air to loosen this up. So you’re going to take these fingers and just go like that very briefly and you’ve released some air which makes the balloon softer for twisting and will lessen your likelihood of popping. Well I hope you had fun learning how to make dog balloon animals. And I hope you’re having fun making these for your family and friends or maybe even at parties, maybe even making money. Please give us a “like” and please subscribe for more video lessons in the future. Thank you so much for watching. See you next time. [Music]
