If it has not happened yet, it is going to. It is just a matter of time. Balloon after balloon you inflate is defective, and you are now stuck with a bag of bad balloons. It happens to the best of us.
I laugh when I read posts that say you should return a defective bag of balloons to the distributor or manufacturer. Comments like this are perpetuated by the manufacturer, not the people working in the trenches.
Personally, I do not have time to test each case of balloons I receive. I am too busy loading my apron and getting ready for tomorrow’s event. Secondly, I am expecting the manufacturer to do quality control. My focus is on twisting balloons and putting smiles on my client’s face.
I have learned that bad balloons cannot handle the normal stress that I put on them when twisting, and many times deflate. The secret I have learned is to use bad balloons in simple designs, which have a wow factor. How do you do this, you ask? Wings are my answer.
Butterfly, dragon, or bat wings are great ways to use up those bad balloons. Wings have very few twists, are simple to make, and creates a big “wow” with kids.
Here is a dragon/batwing design that is simple to make.
Start with 12 balloons. That sounds like many balloons, but when I have to burn through 2-3 bags of bad balloons, I don’t care how many balloons it takes. I want that crap out of my apron, gone from my stock, and I am happy to use them in a quick design with a wow factor.
Step 1. Inflate 2-260’s, fold and twist together, forming an X.
Step 2. Inflate 1-260 balloon fully inflated and attach it to one leg of the X -we will call this balloon bottom of the wing.
Step 3. Please take one of the unused legs of the X and fold it in half. Twisting it, so it creates an L shape. The corner of the L will be wrapped into the bottom of the wing balloon. I try to break the bottom of the wing into 1/3 sections. See the image below.
Step 4. Take another leg of the X and make another L shape balloon. Attach the corner of the L shape balloon to the loop at the bottom of the wing. Twist the remaining balloons together to finish the wings. See the next picture.
Step 5. Repeat Steps 1-4 and makes a second wing.
Step 6. Twist the right-wing and left-wing together.
Step 7. Remove any excess balloon tips.
Step 8. Remove any extra balloon bubbles that may be too large.
Step 9. Inflate the last 260 and make a figure eight. Twist the figure eight into the joints that connect the right and left-wing. This is the shoulder straps for the child to wear.
Dragon Wings
Dragon wings are made the same way, but have one extra balloon add to the wing’s end to give a different shape to the wing structure.
You can keep adding balloons to the wings to make them bigger but, keep in mind that if you make them big, they will drag on the ground and pop.
Love it! Having a little bit of a hard time following your instructions but I’ll figure it out.
I’m going to use this design with my neon balloons… I find they don’t like being twisted all that much but they sure are attractive. I’ll be making lots of fairy wings this week end! Thanks!
Sorry to hear about the neon balloons. Let me know what you don’t understand and I will try to explain it better. :0)
If you can’t blow up the balloons at all you can use them for bracelets.
Cut the balloons up into desired lengths (1/2 inch or whatever you desire) then thread them with 160s and tie them when you are completed make fun friendship bracelets to give away.
We just learned about doing this with saved scrapped pieces. Should work well with bad balloons too.