How to Shape Balloon Animals

If you're making balloon animals at a children's party, not all of the moves needed to create shapes involve complicated twists. Some techniques, in fact, are quite basic. Shaping parts of animals can be done with little more than a few folds and the heat of your hands or breath.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Long balloons

Pack an Elephant Trunk

1. Create an elephant's trunk by folding a 10-inch piece of the balloon upward, so that it is folded against itself.

2. Give a gentle squeeze to the fold of the trunk. The heat of your hand will help the balloon adapt to its new shape.

3. Release the balloon so the trunk unfurls, completing the animal.

Finish the Swan Song With the Neck

4. Make the graceful neck of a swan by rolling a long balloon into a basic shape that looks like a cinnamon roll.

5. Rub your hand along the outside of the roll. You can also breathe on it to heat the balloon, shaping it into the curve you want.

6. Unroll the balloon, and you have a swan's neck.

Put Your Heart Into It

7. Grab a long red balloon and inflate it, leaving a couple of inches uninflated at the end.

8. Tie the ends of the balloon together to form a basic circle.

9. Push the sides of the circle together so that you have two parallel lines in your hand, and keep the knot at one end.

10. Roll the two sections toward the tied end, aiming for a tight roll that looks like a snail. Keep a good hold on the two sections because they may try to escape your hand.

11. Unroll the balloon, holding onto the end opposite the knot. That end will be the indentation in the top of the heart.

12. Open the two parallel sections of the balloon into a heart shape, continuing to hold onto the end opposite the knot.

13. Squeeze the end and rub it a little, shaping it to become the indentation in the top of the heart.