Hi, I have volunteered myself for a friends daughters party. Was wondering if there were a few basic models (the must haves) that I should make sure I'm confident with? If so how many designs should I be able to offer?

Any advice welcome as I'm pretty nervous about this!

Thanks in advance.

Check the tutorial section, there are a few basic models taught and then the model of the month has instructions as well.
You Tube has a wealth of info or a basic balloon DVD would be a good start as well. Nippy has a DVD review section that may be of help.

I can do the basics but wondering how many different things i should be able to produce roughly?

I think a good idea would be to have 10 or 12 designs that look good, and you can produce confidently.

Make them up at home and photograph them, and put the photographs on a display board, or in an album.

Then when you turn up at the party, you are able to give the kids a good choice of designs, and you will be confident that you will not get "caught out" by someone asking for something unusual, as you are giving them the choice from designs you know you can do

Thank you! Any suggestions on the models?

There are 100's of models out there, just pick a few that are 1-2 balloons and are easiy for you to start off with.... You want things for girls and boys..

So, Dogs, cats, swords, guns, flowers, giraffe, snake, rabbit, etc....

They can all be made loads of different ways, starting with 1 balloon, going to as many as you want to add,..... As above, read the reviews, get some basic books DVD's.. check out Graham's sites linked above, and you will have all the stuff you need!

If it is any help, these are my "everyday" models that are easy to do, and none of them take longer than 3 or 4 minuits

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 971&type=3

Captain Visual's Big Book Of Balloon Art is widely tipped as the best collection of designs for beginners. It used to be very scarce and expensive, but is now available on Lulu.com at a reasonable price.

I think that you can comfortably get away with a quite a small number of balloons.

Dog, sausage dog, squirrel, giraffe can all be made by varying the proportions of the basic one balloon dog model.

One balloon horse and dinosaur are both essentially variants of another

Learn to do these and mount them on a simple hat or heart and you have a surprisingly large number of permutations available.

Add a two-balloon twisted braid for wands and a fancier hat, and a simple flower.

That makes half a dozen "base models". I reckon that will keep most punters happy. It won't make your reputation as a pro twister but will get you quite a long way if you get them right.

Next on my list would be bunny, cat and monkey. Swords are a must, but beware of the chaos that often occurs if you do them for groups.