Day 145: Killer Croc

Keeping with the large killer reptile theme... the boy from yesterday has a brother. He asked for an alligator.


I don't know the difference between an alligator and a crocodile anymore, but I think that for the purpose of making them out of balloons it doesn't much matter.


I could be wrong though, so if any of my readers feel I should be including something that clearly defines one shape from another.. let me know what that should be.


See you tomorrow.

day 144: Bigger Brontosaurus

I know it's a little blurry, but it was hard to get this guy to stay still.


I decided to try to scale up the "Long Neck" dinosaur for this boy, but didn't have the time to make the really fancy Brontosaurus.


I think the result was the creation of a nice middle difficulty dinosaur design... that may have an effect on the evolution of the Dragon shape I've been developing.


See you tomorrow.

Day 143: Goldfish

It's the tasty snack that smiles back... until you but their heads off.


I've been working on my fish in a fish bowl over the last week. I  had a little girl ask me for one, and I have been thinking of ways to improve on it since.


The first problem I find I have, is I'm not 100% happy with the tiny fish itself. I think I'm going to need to spend some time on making it look more fish like.


The actual insertion into the clear balloon goes fine, I've been putting things into balloons for a while. (I'm even developing me routine for climbing inside a balloon myself.)


The last problem I'm dealing with is the problem of how to make it stay upright. For now I'm using Geo Blossoms as a base.


See you tomorrow.

Day 138-142: Catch Up.

I know I've been late with the last several posts. You've made yourself known. Things got crazy right after getting back from Las Vegas, and I've been trying to play catchup ever since.


I'm going to do a combined post today to make up for all the missed days that will include a bunch of pictures and will count for days 138-142.  This will make it easier for me to get them all up without having to open the new post editor over and over again and mess with the settings.


Things should be back to normal after this.


Day 138

I did manage to find an old picture of an octopus. This is from before I learned how to get the really tight spirals that I use for the legs.

I think this model has it's perks... It doesn't have all that much less character than the smaller version. This one is just more difficult to hand out and expect a person to handle walking around without whapping  everyone around them.

Day 139:

Here is the last Leprechaun design you should see for this year. I made so many of them this St. Patrick's season and in some many different sizes and designs that I've been trying to make sure that I'm not posting ones that look too similar.

I was experimenting with using a base to help make the lil' guy stand up on his own without my having to attach him to something on the counter.

Day 140:

Giraffe Hat. This is a hat design I'm fiddling around with lately trying to make improvements. I'm quite happy with my elephant hat (Which I don't think has been on the blog yet, so I'll have to remember to try to snap a picture of it.) And my Giraffe hat is the next most commonly asked for animal hat. I feel I still need to do some work on it, but it's getting there.

This is also a hat that is difficult to get a picture of because of it's height.

Day 141:

I've been working on building a bigger frog. This design is made from 640's and 350's. I like where the design is going, but I'm now trying to add a tongue to it so I can have it catching a fly.

There have been a few test builds, but I'm not 100% pleased with them yet.

You'll be the first to know when I've finalized the design.

Day 142:

Here is one of the times when I'll share my mistakes with you guys.

I have been asked for hedgehogs a lot lately, and as a result I've been trying to work on a new design for one. Here you see one of my attempts that I feel didn't quite hit the mark.

In my defense, up till now I've only ever been asked for Sonic the Hedgehog... so I've never had to think much about a more realistic looking version.

I'm never one to back down from a challenge though, so I'm sure you will see more versions of this little critter as it evolves.

Ok. Done.

That gets me all caught up again.

Tomorrow should resume with the normal daily posts since I'm back in Ohio and things are slowing down.

April is looking really busy for me, and July is nearly packed... this might mean I'll be late a few times, but it should also mean I'll have plenty of opportunities  to snap some pictures of new designs.

See you tomorrow.

Day 137: Octopus 2.0

Here is the more current version of my octopus. I've had larger and smaller versions of this animal over the years, but I think I'll be staying with this one for a while.


I think I've got a few pictures of the previous versions of the octopus, if I can dig them up I'll let you guys see the evolution of the balloon octopus.


See you tomorrow.

Day 136: Rainbow Hat

I received a lot of requests for a better look at the rainbow design I had put on the Relay for Life bucket. 


Here is a similar design I made when trying to improve my rainbow hat.


It was a spur of the moment attempt, and I was trying to mix the old rainbow hat with this new idea.


Let me know what you guys think.


Also, I've had a large spike in page views on the post I did back on day 75. It was a post where I mad a little boy a balloon taser gun. Anyone have any idea while this old post saw a huge jump?


See you tomorrow.

Day 135: Rawr

The lion is one of those shapes that I'm always going back to and trying to redesign.
Truthfully, any cat shape is one that I feel I struggle with.
Here is an example of a medium difficulty lion shape that is still a work in progress.


This is one of the main points for this blog though... to force me to improve my designs and techniques.


See you tomorrow.