How to Make a Balloon Airplane

Series Summary

Balloon animals are always a hit at kids' parties. They may look easy in the hands of an expert, but quality balloon animals are works of insight and creativity. Artists who twist and shape balloons into shapes such as animals and other various toys are known as balloon modelers or balloon twisters, and are usually contorting long, cylindrical balloons into said shapes for entertainment purposes such as children's birthday parties or celebrations. Street artisans and clowns are popular balloon modelers, and though the practice might seem benign to those who don't have the skill, but the art of balloon shaping requires a fair amount of skill.

In this free video series, professional balloon shaper and entertainer Julia Gayle teaches you how to make various animals, gifts, and decorations with balloons. You will learn to make cartoon favorites like Bugs Bunny, The Pink Panther, Pluto the Pup, and more. Julia also shows you how to make elaborate balloon crafts like motorcycles, candy canes, and airplanes. It is all here.

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Julia Gayle; I'm a professional balloon twister. I'm going to make an airplane or a helicopter. So we're going to start with the back of the plane or the helicopter, make a full twist just fold it. Fold it once, fold it twice; and make a Z shape or an S shape. Now I need to find the center point of the Z by just squeezing and then making a twist. You'll see that makes the tail shape of the airplane. Coming down the balloon, you may say a couple of inches there. You'll see I've left a little bit of nozzle there at the end. I'm going to make what I call an anchor bubble. It anchors the whole balloon model in place. And I'll twist the anchor around. If you want to you can even add an extra little bit of security by twisting under itself and back around. Now we're going to start making the main body of the airplane. So I'm just going to mark it up so that each section is the same size as the one above and below it. We mark that by finding the center, center part. I hold one of the top bubbles still, pinching it and twisting it. I'm going to hold the left bubble still and twist with the right. So now we've got two halves. Now I'm going to find the center point of the oval by folding it up and marking approximately with my fingers where the center point comes. I'm pinching, twisted at the bottom of your fingers. We'll fold it up and use that little anchor bubble, and just threading it right into the center at the body of the plane. And straightening the back up. Coming up, I just slip that on my wrist. Coming up to the wings of the airplane and the wheels. This is my favorite model of all balloons creations. I like the detail of this. I'm just folding the balloon up. I've done one fold, a little fold twist and twisting around to make the wheels. Coming up the balloon we do a pinch twist; and you can see I've left a little nozzle end there. We're going to take that spare bit and wrap it around and tie it in place. We're going to find the center point again and fold it down. These make the wings of our little helicopter or airplane. We're going to measure up, make sure that there approximately the same size. They don't have to be perfect. I'm just going to lock them in place by sending one under the under. Finally I'm going to take the bottom half of the airplane base, which is this half; the bottom half of it. And we're going to slip the wings threw this one and then threw the other side. You'll start by pulling towards yourself; lift it up and squeeze it threw. And pull straight. Just fold and reeeeeer, you got your little airplane."