Happy Birthday not only from me but also KJ too

Hello all,

I have a friend who is interested in obtaining a 2nd hand floor pump, as she has recently hurt her hand or something, I did pay attention at the time she told me (but it was yesterday). Has anyone got one that they no longer need and would like to part with? I will pass on any potential persons onto her and she can then discuss with you the finer points.

Many thanks

Just recently I've been asked to come up with some very strange balloons for some of the birthday parties we have attended. One of the strangest requests was for this American wrestler Roman Reigns. Though the basic design came from Ken Stillman's (Superheroes) there has been quite a few adaptions made, which I feel have improved the basic structure. How many can you spot? I've been playing with feet recently and was actually quite pleased with these shoes on this model. However I kept playing with different designs until last week when I think I've finally what I was looking for in a shoe, which I hopefully intend to use for a long time to come.

I had a request for a a sculpture for an event I was hosting tonight. so I took along a little singing leprechaun (Well why not??)  

I was asked to have a go at Henry this weekend for a young lads birthday party. The parents wanted to have him as a extra special table decoration to sit with his cake. After Googling (is that an actual word yet?) an image of him this is what I came up with. Just in case anyone's interested the head is a 1" Goldenrod Q-Link with a 646 inside to give it the shape I wanted. It's also the first model that I've really used Balloon Bond tape on (his nose). That stuff is amazing! It worked like a charm.

I was asked to make R2 for delivery this weekend. and though it was a bit of a manic week with everything else going on at the same time (Halloween) I couldn't really not try to squeeze it in. It's the first time I've really played with double stuffing for any length of time. All I can say is that it was different. More time consuming actually doing the stuffing, easier to handle without fear of breakages, but also harder to handle with the weave. There's a lot of little bits and pieces missing from the final design, but only for those like me that are sad enough to know   .

I have been nominated on Facebook for the 5 Day Challenge by Graham, and have decided not only to post up on there but also on here too.
Day 1: Lady & the Tramp

Last weekend I was asked to have go at making the tower from Tangled. I'm pleased with the way it came out, though might change a little section here or there if I was to make this again. The tower was completely free-standing, probably around 6 1/2ft tall in the end and I had to built it in 2 sections and then joined them together. It was a real pleasure not on to do this young ladies party but also to make this tower, it's also the first video thank you that we've had back from a child, which was lovely.  

Last weekend was a little on the busy side but really enjoyable at the same time, sometimes it's so hard to know when to stop on a model don't you think? There was so much more that I wanted to add to each of these birthday balloons but unfortunately time wasn't on my side. Thinking about it though time is never really on my side I keep getting older every day...Anyway enough deep and meaningful stuff from me, and just to help those who do use the search button,  Buzz Lightyear & Tinker Bell ;-)

KJ (my better half) set me a challenge the other week to make another blast from the past and I have to really admit to enjoying this build. Normally I base these special builds from a random image from Google and recreate them exactly, however this time I have had to change the positioning to make Jerry look a little bit more like Jerry. I know it probably means nothing to anyone else but it bothered me that I had to do it. Just need to find them a good home to see out the rest of their days with, I was thinking about taking them down to the local library and seeing if they were interested. Has anyone ever done this before and how did it go?

Afternoon!

Hope those who were at Leeds this week have recovered from all the madness...I'm not sure that I ever will though  

Anyway...I mentioned the FAB Mega Jam again and promised to post up the link. There are just 10 places left available to book (with 100 delegates being our total) and we would love to see some more twisters there - after all, that was one of the main reasons behind setting up the event in the first place. I twist, my partner paints but there weren't that many affordable events where we could do both together so we decided to create our own! Next year will be our 3rd year and we have some very special things planned. Don't just take my word for it, read the reviews on the Facebook page or ask those who have attended before   I do have everything crossed that Twist & Shout won't clash yet again but it has done for the last 2 years so I know that if it does, that is where some of you will be. Las Vegas vs Cambridge...hmmmm, not really a hard decision though, lol!

We have a designated Balloon Room but twisting goes on all weekend long, with many delegates starting from the Friday and not stopping until they go home either Sunday or Monday. We are still in the planning stages of some pre-Mega Jam workshops, one of which will be Advanced Balloons, and these details will be posted up on the Facebook page too as soon as they are finalised.

DATE: 31 January - 1 February 2015
VENUE: Menzies Hotel & Golf Club, Bar Hill, Cambridge
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/FABMegaJam
EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/229589137164718/ (All the pricing information can be found in the Pinned Post at the top of the Event Thread).

If you have any questions, give me a shout but you might get a better answer by messaging the page where KJ or Liz will respond.

Go on...have a look! You know you want to  :mrgreen:

Over this last weekend at the FAB Megajam I was asked very late on the Saturday night if I knew who these two characters were. Though I had heard of them I'd never seen the cartoon before. On the Sunday morning I was asked to come with something and unfortunately at the time I only had a short while before heading out to teach a class on weaving so I thought I'd have another go once I got home.

Last week I was set a challenge to make Stitch from the films. It's due for delivery later today luckily enough at the restaurant where I twist on a Sunday afternoon. I'm lucky enough to be able to display it at the bar during the day, for a little extra advertising. The one drawback with this however, is that I'm dreading how many people will see it and want one of their own made for them at the their tables.

I had a party to go to last weekend and instead of making a birthday balloon for the little girl in question, I was asked if I could come up with a Lorax balloon for her. She wanted one to take into her class at school as they are doing a project on the environment and and she loves Dr Seuss books.

Really!!! I would love to know who comes up with the some of the ideas for the cartoon characters today, whatever happened to the good old classics like 'Dungeons & Dragons' and 'Battle of the Planets'. I had to come up with some balloons for Doc McStuffins last weekend for a party and decided to make most of the individual ones (there were over 30) wearable's. I was really pleased with the speed that these went together. having such a large order to fulfil it gave me more time to spend on the Doc herself. There are a few improvements I would make to some of the figures if I had to do them again, but I think I would leave 'Lambie' alone. (Surely they could have up with a better name than that??)

I've been asked if I could make a Betty Boop a couple of times recently, both times my answer was yes sure no problem. However neither of the prospective clients followed through simply because they couldn't see a 'finished' version of it before delivery. Does anyone else have the problem of convincing customers that you can make their wishes become a reality?? It seems strange because both had seen some of my other work and just couldn't see how I could change the iconic figure into balloons. I do like to make things just for the fun of making them, but it seems at the moment as always life has a way of putting actual work in front of 'play' time. However the very next week however someone actually took the plunge and trusted me enough to have a go. I hope you enjoy as much as she did.

Sorry not been about much recently, it seems that being busy has it's drawbacks, but wanted to share a couple of birthday princesses from the last couple of weeks with you. I was asked to make Rupunzel for a little girl who was all in a twist about 'Tangled'. The following day my brief for the balloon was 'she loves Disney princesses and animals'. I have never been asked to make  Snow White before and thought I might try and give her a go. Just to make it interesting I thought I'd attempt to make her sitting down instead of standing and also give her a deer just because...

This weekend I have been asked to donate a raffle prize to help raise some funds for a local charity. They left it completely open to me as to what to make so I embarked on a couple of popular characters of the moment. You could say I had an idea that just Gru & grew, and even managed to find a minion to help me with the task.

Also wanted to say thank you to Antonio for sharing his wealth of knowledge at the memorial lecture last month, as I used the pinchline for Gru's scarf

I haven't had the time to get my balloons and just have a play for a little while now, however this afternoon I was able to have a go at making Sulley. I really enjoyed making him as he's been one of my favorites from the last few years and to see him come together was great. What's made me even happier is when the kids came in from school this afternoon. One of them actually asked if they could have it in their room!!! (They've never wanted anything I've made before   ).

...just wanted to drop a quick note in here because I am so, so proud of my OH at the moment.

For those of you who might be familiar with the Face & Body Art world, Illusion Magazine is the one of the biggest, if not the biggest, publications in the industry and KJ has been given the honour of being the Cover Artist for the Summer 2013 Issue and for those of you who are not familiar with the Face & Body Art world, KJ still has the honour of being the Cover Artist  :mrgreen:  

You can check out the design on the Illusion Magazine Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

or

the Illusion Magazine website here: http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=ec4 ... 7a06dd678d

and I am pretty sure you can find it on our Facebook page too